Part 16 (1/2)

Madame Giraud walked away from Eugenie with evident displeasure. Eugenie glanced at me with a smile; I had guessed aright the subject of their conversation. The husband and wife met and whispered earnestly together; then they walked toward Madame Dumeillan and surrounded her, one at her right, and the other at her left; she could not escape them. They evidently proposed to try to learn more from Eugenie's mother; but I knew that they would waste their time, that Madame Dumeillan would tell them nothing; she invented an excuse for leaving them after talking a few moments.

Giraud and his wife were very angry. They came toward me again, and I expected that they would hurl epigrams at me and tear me with their claws. I was not mistaken; Madame Giraud began, speaking to her husband so that I should hear:

”It is very amusing, isn't it, Monsieur Giraud?”

”Yes, Madame Giraud, very amusing; there is a great deal of diplomacy here.”

”Yes, they make a mystery of something that is everybody's secret.”

”Aha! they evidently take us for fools.”

”It seems that way to me.”

”Wouldn't anyone say that it was a question of uniting two great powers?”

”Perhaps they are afraid they will have to invite us to the wedding.”

”Great heaven! weddings! we have no lack of them; in fact, we have so many that it is fairly sickening.”

”I declined an invitation to another to-morrow. And there is poor Belan who has already invited us to his, which is to be at Lointier's.”

”That young man will make a very good husband. Does he get along all right with Madame de Beausire?”

”Oh, yes! since I went to see the mother-in-law, all the obstacles have disappeared. There are some people who aren't afraid to let me take a hand in their affairs, and who are greatly benefited by it.”

”Let us go, Monsieur Giraud; we still have time to go and see our good friends who have that expensive apartment on Rue de la Paix, and whose daughter you found a husband for two months ago.”

”You are right; I am sure that they expect us to have a cup of tea.”

The husband and wife disappeared without a word to anyone. And those creatures were offended with us because we found it natural and convenient to manage our own affairs! But in society it takes so little to make enemies, especially of narrow-minded people.

The guests began to leave, and I found a moment to talk with Eugenie. I told her that my mother would come to see her the next day. She blushed and sighed as she replied:

”Suppose she doesn't like me? suppose she isn't willing to have me for her daughter?”

Not like her! who could fail to like her? I was not at all disturbed. I rea.s.sured Eugenie, and I left her at last when the clock so ordered, as I had not as yet the right not to leave her at all.

On returning home, I met Ernest coming down from his mistress's room.

Since I had been spending all my time at Madame Dumeillan's, I had sadly neglected my friends of the fifth floor. Ernest reproached me for it mildly, but they were not offended; they knew that I was in love, and thought it quite natural that I should think of no one but my love. But Ernest said to me:

”I hope that you will come to see us sometimes, although Marguerite will soon cease to be your neighbor.”

”Is she going to move?”

”In a week. She is not going to live in an attic any longer, thank heaven! Poor child! she has been miserable enough; she has made so many sacrifices for me, that I may well be glad to offer her a pleasanter position at last. Thank heaven! my affairs are prosperous. I have been successful, my friend, and I have made money. I have not squandered it at the cafes or restaurants, because I have always remembered Marguerite, in her attic, poor and dest.i.tute of everything. You see that, whatever my parents may say, it is not always a bad thing to have a poor mistress, for it has made me orderly and economical in good season.”

”I see that you are not selfish, and that you are not like many young men of your age, who think that they have done enough for a woman when they have taken her to a theatre and to a restaurant,--pleasures which they share with her,--but who cease to think about her as soon as they have left her at home.”