"It is surely she; it's the pretty flower girl of the Château d'Eau!--I say, neighbor, she came out of your room----"
"Why, to be sure; you must have seen her come out."
"Yes, yes, I saw her.--Aha! so the little flower girl comes to see you! The deuce! you're a lucky man!"
"It is true, I am generally lucky with women."
"Is your face inflamed, neighbor, that you are holding your handkerchief over your cheek?"
"All the same, I confess that I can't get over it; Mademoiselle Violette coming out of your room! She was very red, and decidedly rumpled too!"
"Why--that was the result of our interview."
"Oh, yes! I understand. Gad! you are favored by Venus! The pretty flower girl, who made such a parade of her pride and virtue, and sent me about my business when I made impassioned speeches to her, and snubbed me when I proposed to take her to Saint-Germain by train!"
"Let this be a lesson to you, young man; it will teach you that you mustn't trust the airs these young women assume.--Au revoir, Astianax."
"Au revoir, Joconde! Don Juan! Richelieu!"
Jéricourt returned to his room, saying to himself:
"Now I am sure of my revenge! Mademoiselle Violette will pay dear for the scratches she gave me!"
Madame de Grangeville, whose place of abode Chicotin had not been able to ascertain, lived on Rue Fontaine-Saint-Georges, in a small apartment on the fourth floor of a recently-constructed house.
In houses which have just been finished, and of which the walls have not had time to dry and the paint to lose its odor, apartments are very commonly let to persons who offer to break them in, so to speak. Why are these persons very often lorettes or ballet-dancers out of employment? Probably because those ladies know that very little pains will be taken to seek information about them, and that they will be accepted as tenants with such effects as they choose to bring. Landlords are never exacting with those tenants who are willing to "dry the walls."
The Baronne de Grangeville, however, did not belong to either of the various classes of women who are in the habit of hiring apartments without asking the price, and who reply to those persons who remark that their rent is high: "What difference does that make to me? I never pay!"