The count had been walking there for some time, when he spied Georget standing within a few feet of him, apparently afraid to interrupt his revery.
"Ah! there you are, Georget. Have you seen your lodgings? Do you like them? Is your mother better?"
"Yes, monsieur, my mother is overjoyed, and so am I. Monsieur is too kind to us. Now that we are settled, I have come to ask monsieur what work I shall do to-day."
"To-day, my friend, you must rest, walk about the gardens and the house, and become acquainted with the place; to-morrow we will talk about work. But first of all, Georget, tell me your trouble; for you are in trouble, I can see it in your eyes. Indeed, as you have already confided in me about your love-affair, I ought to know now how it happens that you have been able to make up your mind to leave your young flower girl, with whom you were so deeply in love. You could not endure the thought of passing a single day without seeing her, and now you are here, and you don't want to hear Paris mentioned! Poor boy! that girl who you said was so virtuous and honest, must have listened to some other man than you--isn't it true that that is the cause that has brought you here?"
"Mon Dieu! yes, monsieur, you have guessed the truth; at all events, I prefer that you should know everything, I prefer to tell you all my sorrow, for it is so hard always to have to restrain one's feelings! It stifles one! Oh! allow me to cry, monsieur; I don't dare to before my mother, but it won't offend you."
"Weep, my boy; at your age, tears come readily, and are a relief. You are not a man yet, you have not the strength to endure a woman's treachery; and even grown men are very weak sometimes in such cases!"
"Ah! who would ever have thought, monsieur, that Violette, who seemed never to listen to any gallant--and she has been to the rooms of one of them, the one that I was most jealous of! Ah! I was right to be jealous of him! a perfumed dandy, a lion, as they say!"
"But how do you know that she has been to his rooms?"
"From another one, who also is in love with Violette, and who saw her come out of this Monsieur Jéricourt's, who lives on his landing."
"And how do you know that he tells the truth, especially as the flower girl refused to listen to him?"