Paul de Kock

“ Mamzelle Georgette, can a man ever change when he loves you?"
"Kiss me, Colinet."
"With all my heart!"
The opposite neighbor did not see the kiss, because all this had taken place before he went to the window.
"What about that Monsieur Dupont I saw in your room so often when I was here before?" queried Colinet; "do you still see him?"
"No, Colinet, I don't see Monsieur Dupont any more."
The young man smiled. He seemed delighted to hear that; but his brow grew dark when Georgette added:
"No, I never see him now, but I do see another man."
"Ah! you have made the acquaintance of another man?" ”

“ Why, yes, on my word, it's Madame Dauberny!"
"Why are you in this disguise?"
"What! can't you guess? I am your other second."
"You! Can you think of such a thing, Frédérique?"
"I thought of it instantly, when I knew that you were going to fight for me."
"But it's impossible! A woman cannot act as second. I cannot consent to it.—Isn't that so, Balloquet?"
"It certainly isn't customary, and——"
"Listen, messieurs: I have but one reply to make—I propose to do it! If you don't take me with you, I will follow you and be there, all the same. All argument is useless. I propose to be your second." ”

“ Frédérique cast a mocking glance in my direction.
"If my companion had made such a proposition to me," murmured Balloquet, puffing himself up, "I should have accepted with thanks; I would have rolled like an ass."
"Oh! but you're a gallant à la rose, you are! Why, I almost had to force monsieur to kiss me!"
"Oh! what things you say, Rosette!"
"What's that? Don't lovers always kiss? Do you suppose madame thinks that we pass our time whispering in each other's ears?"
Madame Dauberny turned her face away to laugh. I wished that I were heaven knows where. ”

“ The image of that little Georgette is always before my eyes! I see her going back and forth in her chamber, in her jacket and short skirt. Her voluptuous shape turns my head! Decidedly I am mad over that girl. And after all, I should be a great fool to pine away with longing, when it is in my power to be that girl's happy lover! I know what it will cost me. But, still, twelve thousand francs won't ruin me; especially as she said in so many words that she would not ask for anything more after that. And there are women who ask all the time. ”

“ I will be true to Satiné. Poor Satiné! But I'll tell her to put less rose on her gloves. Never mind; she's a fine woman, is Madame Dauberny; I can't understand why you've never thought of making love to her."
Did he propose to set up as an echo of Baron von Brunzbrack?
When Balloquet left me, I squeezed his hand so hard that I made him cry out. Really, he was a very good fellow, was Balloquet, and I was very fond of him! How in the devil could I ever have dreamed that Frédérique would listen to him? There was not the slightest bond of sympathy between them. ”

“ And she ran to the new-comer, seized his hands, then his face, and kissed him again and again, with every indication of the keenest delight.
"Dear Colinet!" she said. "Oh! how glad I am to see you!"
"And I am very glad to see you, Mamzelle Georgette!" the young man replied. "For they told me Paris was so big, I was afraid I wouldn't find you!"
Dupont meanwhile looked on with a strange expression on his face, saying to himself:
"It seems that she lets some people kiss her! More than that, she kissed him first! The devil! the devil! I wonder if I'm nothing better than an old fool! ”

“ I was eager to know if Madame Dauberny had allowed Balloquet to escort her, and if he had made any progress in my friend's good graces. Why was I so eager to know that? I myself could not understand. As I was not that lady's lover, as I had never thought of mentioning the subject of love to her, ought I to take it amiss that others should mention it? I began to believe that one could be jealous in friendship as well as in love. If Frédérique should have a lover, that would lessen the attachment that she seemed to entertain for me ”

“ I am certain of that!" cried Frédérique, pressing my hand. "But probably that is just why she loves you! Women are made that way; it's a congenital defect in them. If you had spoken of love to Mignonne, it is very probable that she would have taken offence at it, and would have ceased to come to your rooms. But when she found that you always treated her like a sister, confidence returned—she reproached herself for her distrust; well, at all events, she loves you, that is certain! We all know that that sentiment is not governed by reason." ”

“ Madame Piquette put a small rug under my feet. Did she think that I had come to pass the day with her? She glanced in the mirror, and rearranged her cap strings on her breast. That pantomime alarmed me; I looked about in dismay; but for some unknown reason, I did not let my eyes rest on Madame Piquette, who had partly unfastened her neckerchief. Mon Dieu! what was the woman thinking of? At last, she finished her manœuvring, and I hastened to say, without stopping for breath:
"I have come from Madame Berlingot's finishing shop on Rue Pinon, to ask Mademoiselle Rosette to mend a cashmere shawl." ”

“ At all events, you are not in the least to blame for it. So I begin by telling you that I am not offended with you for it."
"Oh! how cruel you are with your reflections, Frédérique!"
"Well! Mignonne loves you dearly. That is the secret that makes her melancholy and embarrassed—especially when I am there; because she has imagined, foolishly of course, but still she has imagined that you love me, that I am—your mistress! If she had heard Mademoiselle Rosette repeat your remark—that you would never love me—she wouldn't entertain that absurd idea." ”

“ I was enchanted with Mademoiselle Rosette! Long live the women who do not make a thousand and one grimaces before coming to what they have never intended to refuse! Ah! if only one could believe that they did have that intention, and yielded to the power of sentiment, to the ascendency of our passion alone! But it is impossible to believe that. Whenever a woman agrees to go to a private dining-room with a man, it means that she does not propose to be severe. ”

“ I wish that you gentlemen, who will have it that there are none left in Paris, would go now and then, during the summer, to the Closerie des Lilas, the favorite ball of the students who love dancing and love; you will see there grisettes of all categories, you will see them laughing, capering, fooling, dancing a cancan as graceful and much less indecent than the Spanish dances which are allowed at the theatres; you will hear them talk, making fun of one another, envying this one her lover, ridiculing that one's lover ”

“ I am going away from this house, which has lost all its charm for me since Armantine has been my neighbor and has passed all her time with us. I say with us—I imagined that it was still that happy time when there were only we two! That time passed too swiftly. I realize that I am a selfish creature, and that it is natural that you should be happy in having found again a woman whom you once loved dearly, and whose presence has rekindled the fire which was not extinct. ”

“ Had I any right to take it amiss that Balloquet should make love to Frédérique, to whom I was nothing more than a friend?
It followed that I was the only one of the party who was not hilarious. Rosette, noticing it, said to me from time to time:
"I say, my dear man, what's the matter with you, anyway? We are all talking and laughing—you're the only one who don't say anything. Can it be that you are really cracked over one of my aunts?—You must excuse him, madame, for he met my seven aunts yesterday, and that's quite enough to destroy his peace of mind." ”

“ At nine o'clock the following morning, Frontin carried to Georgette's apartment a terrine de foie gras, a small Reims ham, cakes, some superb fruit, bordeaux, madeira, and champagne. The valet, remembering the tone in which the shirtmaker had spoken to him, was as polite to her now as he had formerly been impertinent.
Georgette received all these supplies with no indication of surprise, whereas Colinet, who had already arrived at his compatriot's rooms, opened his eyes in amazement and exclaimed:
"What! are we going to eat all that? Why, what a feast, Mamzelle Georgette! what a feast! ”

“ I have a very good head."
"Do you live alone upstairs?"
"Yes, monsieur."
"How many lovers have you, Mademoiselle Georgette?"
The girl stared at the viscount with an impertinent expression, and finally answered:
"I have none, monsieur."
"What! not one? not the least little bit of a one?"
"No, monsieur."
"That is very strange."
"What is there strange about it, monsieur? Do you think that a girl cannot remain virtuous, and live without a lover?"
"It seems to me to be very difficult, to say no more, in Paris."
"No more difficult in Paris than elsewhere; a woman always does just what she chooses." ”

“ I have never spent money on women. I know that once doesn't make a custom; but, for all that, I don't like it. But that girl is obstinate and strong-willed; if I don't send her what she wants, I shall have to abandon the pursuit. And I don't want to abandon it! I dream of her every night. I see her slender figure, her rounded hips, which her little black skirt hugs so closely. Well! I must buy her this finery. I won't go so far as the cashmere—no, indeed, I'm not such a fool! ”

“ Did Monsieur Renardin send you to bring that box to Mademoiselle Georgette, on the entresol?"
"Yes; it's from your neighbor, with all his compliments, mademoiselle."
"Ah! we'll just look and see what he sends to that hussy!"
And Mademoiselle Arthémise seized the box and was beginning to tear off the wrapper, when the concierge called to her:
"I beg your pardon, mademoiselle; you take that box when you know perfectly well it isn't for you."
"What business is it of yours? What do you want to meddle in it for, you low-lived porter? Does the shirtmaker pay you to look after her lovers' presents?" ”

“ But even if I were in love with that lady, and she should do me the honor to reciprocate my feeling for her, wherein, I pray to know, could it offend you, or even interest you in the least, madame?"
Armantine was silent for a moment; she sighed, and murmured at last:
"I see that you have not forgotten the way I left you one day on the Champs-Élysées. I was wrong, monsieur, very wrong; I have often regretted it since. But do you not know that women sometimes have caprices, moments of irritation, which they themselves cannot understand? ”

“ There is nothing superior to a little tender conversation for putting us in a good humor at once, and putting to flight that indefinable constraint which takes wing only when a woman has ceased to keep us at any distance.
Rosette and I were like people who had known each other for six months. She ate like an ogre and drank like a porter. She was a model grisette! a table companion of the sort that puts you on your mettle and excites you! Don't talk to me of the women who never have any appetite, who barely nibble at their food, and leave untouched all that you put on their plate. ”