"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!"
Roncherolle bit his lips, swaying back and forth on the _causeuse_, and replied:
"Oh! that is the least of my troubles! I attach little importance to those trifles now. At our age, you see, my dear friend, coquetry serves no purpose, unless it be to make us ridiculous! When the time has come, it's no use to paint and bedeck ourselves--it doesn't take away either a wrinkle or a year!"
"He has become painfully tiresome, has this man," thought Madame de Grangeville, as she put a phial of salts to her nose. After a moment, she rejoined with a nonchalant air:
"Thank heaven! everybody hasn't deserted me; I have some friends who remember doubtless that I obliged them formerly, and one of them is giving me an allowance of five thousand francs at this moment."
"The devil! that is handsome, that is very handsome! Is it a male or a female friend who treats you in such magnificent fashion?"
"Mon Dieu! I have no idea! the person doesn't divulge his name; he prefers to remain anonymous, in order not to be thanked even. Isn't that a noble act?"
"Superb! and I regret exceedingly my inability to be the author of it. But you must certainly be able to guess, despite the mystery with which this person surrounds himself."
"No--that is to say, I have some suspicions, which I believe to be well founded."
"Indeed! but it seems that you did not suspect me?"
"But you were not aware of my unfortunate plight."
"What does that matter? as if you would ever have thought of me!"
"That is an extraordinary reproach! It seems to me that I proved to you abundantly that I thought of you in the old days."
"Yes, yes,--unfortunately.--Ah! if one could foresee what is going to happen, if one could read the future!"
"True! there are lots of things that one would not do--that one bitterly regrets having done!"
A long silence ensued. Madame de Grangeville broke it by exclaiming suddenly: