"It is Monsieur de Merval, no doubt--the same gentleman who came last summer?"

"Oh, no! it's not that gentleman, madame; I should have recognized him.

It's one whom I never saw before."

"What sort of looking man? Has he a distinguished appearance? is he stylishly dressed?"

"So far as being distinguished goes--yes, madame. He acts as if he was in the habit of being waited on. As for his dress, why, his clothes don't look as if they'd just come from the tailor's!"

"Arrange my cap, Lizida; does my hair look well?"

"Madame is pretty enough to paint."

"Well then, show the gentleman in; if by any chance it's the unknown friend who sends me bank notes!"

"Oh! he doesn't look like it, madame; or else he's well disguised."

The maid left the room, and in a moment Roncherolle was ushered into his old friend's presence.

Madame de Grangeville was seated on a _causeuse_, dressed in a pretty morning gown, with a charming cap on her head, beneath which great cl.u.s.ters of hair, curled _a la neige_, served as a frame to a face which unfortunately could not be arranged like the hair. The days of privation had left accursed traces which refused to disappear, despite cosmetics and inventions of the perfumer. Wrinkles are most persistent acquaintances; when they once visit us, they never go away.

Roncherolle had made himself as fine as possible; his linen was extremely white, his whole costume scrupulously neat. Unluckily that immaculate neatness could not prevent his coat's being threadbare, his overcoat shabby and of an old-fashioned cut, his trousers of a color that was no longer worn, his waistcoat very ragged on the edges, and his hat much too glossy from overmuch brushing.

Despite all this, however, the former king of fashion presented himself with his distinguished manners of long ago; but he dragged his left leg a little, leaned heavily on his cane, and on removing his hat disclosed a grizzled and almost bald head.

"Here I am, _belle dame_! It is I! Better late than never, eh?"

As he spoke, Roncherolle halted in front of Madame de Grangeville and scrutinized her with a peculiar expression; on her side, that lady examined closely and with an air of amazement the man before her, and tried to think where she had seen him before.

"Well! can it be that you don't recognize me?" continued Roncherolle, walking still nearer, the better to see the baroness; and he added, like a person who fears that he has made a mistake:

"Surely it is Madame de Grangeville to whom I have the honor of speaking?"

"Yes, monsieur; and you are----"

"De Roncherolle, at your service, if you will permit."

"Roncherolle; is it possible? is it really you?"

"Why, yes, it is really I, my dear Lucienne."

"Dear fellow! What a pleasure to see you again! Come and sit here, beside me."

Roncherolle limped to the _causeuse_, saying to himself:

"_Bigre!_ how old she is! what a ruin!"

While the baroness thought:

"How he has changed! how ugly he has grown! I should never have known him!"

"Tell me, my dear friend," said Roncherolle, making himself comfortable on the _causeuse_, "didn't you expect a visit from me? Didn't you receive my bouquets?"

"I beg pardon; indeed I expected you, and most impatiently, I a.s.sure you; but the fact is----"

"That I am devilishly changed, eh? What can you expect? time spares no one; and then the gout--that makes one suffer, it wears one out!"

"Have you had the gout?"

"Yes; indeed I have it now."

"That accounts for it then; I noticed in your gait something--that you used not to have."

"I should say so; I limp like an old horse!"

"You have lost your hair too."

"I have lost a lot of things."

"You are no longer as slender as you used to be."

Roncherolle, beginning to be weary of these remarks, replied with his ironical air, pretending to laugh:

"Ha! ha! what do you expect, my dear friend? We aren't either of us what we were twenty years ago! You yourself haven't that wasp-like waist that called forth universal admiration, and those irreproachable teeth that drove all women to despair."

Madame de Grangeville flushed and bit her lips in anger. She tried, however, to maintain an affable manner as she said:

"Ah! so you find me changed? That is strange; there are people who declare that I am just the same."

"That is because those people haven't pa.s.sed twelve years without seeing you. But we two old friends, old acquaintances, have not met to flatter each other. Bless me! we know each other too intimately and of too long date not to be frank between ourselves. Poor Lucienne! ha! ha!"

"Well, monsieur! what makes you laugh like that, pray?"

"Because I am thinking; I remember that you used to ride like an angel in the old days; and I myself was a very good horseman. We sat in our saddles, I like Baucher, you like a bareback rider at the Hippodrome.

Well, just imagine us now if we should have to mount a horse!--Ha! ha!

ha!"

Madame de Grangeville made an impatient gesture and turned her head away, saying to herself:

"Mon Dieu! what wretched _ton_ he has now!"

"But let us drop that, my dear, and talk of our affairs a little. We parted twelve years ago--on rather bad terms, as I remember; but we were still lovers then, and lovers often quarrel; at all events, two people can't love each other forever--it grows monotonous. To-day there's no question of all that; we are old friends, and you cannot doubt the interest that I take in whatever concerns you."

"Interest! it seems to me, however, that you have displayed very little interest in me. I have pa.s.sed twelve years without a word from monsieur; at that time my fortune was already much impaired, and since then I have had time to become ruined altogether, to be reduced to a very straitened, very embarra.s.sing position; but have you troubled yourself about it? Not the least in the world! And yet it seems to me, monsieur, that if you had had any affection for me, if you had taken any interest in me, you would have had an opportunity to prove it."

"Come, come, _belle dame_, let us not lose our tempers, and above all let us not condemn without a hearing. You accuse me wrongfully. In the first place, I supposed that you were still in comfortable circ.u.mstances at least; and in the second place, I myself have not been for a long time in a position to a.s.sist my friends. I did it often formerly,--without reciprocity; but that would not have prevented me from continuing to do it if fortune had permitted. But she turned her back on me, she deserted me utterly; I treated her too cavalierly and she bore me ill-will. I was unlucky in everything--cards, bets, races, investments; it was impossible for me to retrieve myself in any direction! And what remains now of a handsome property?--some claims on which I can collect nothing, and a few wretched industrial stocks, which I am obliged to sell in order to live, and which will soon be all gone; that is where I am now; so that I can't think of others, being always compelled to think of myself; that is reasonable."

"Ah! so you are reduced to that!" rejoined Madame de Grangeville coldly, casting from time to time an inquisitive glance at the different parts of her former lover's attire. "That is very sad. I understand now. I said to myself: 'Why, Monsieur de Roncherolle, who was always so elegant, so coquettish in his dress--why does he neglect himself so?'

But of course, if you can't do otherwise!"