Volume I Part 17 (2/2)
”Take care, Monsieur Chamoureau, you may be deceived again.”
”Oh, no! this time I am sure of my ground!”
”You did not come to the ball alone, did you, monsieur?”
”No, madame, I came with two young men, friends of mine.”
”Yes, Messieurs Freluchon and Edmond Didier.”
”Ah! madame knows them also?”
”Very little; but I have a friend, a lady, who is very intimately acquainted with one of them.”
”Yes, I understand; and it's with Freluchon, I suppose?”
”No, with Monsieur Edmond; and between ourselves, I think that my poor friend has bestowed her affections very ill.”
”Yes, indeed, I should say so! If she relies on that young man's fidelity, she is completely taken in.”
”He has to my mind every appearance of a ne'er-do-well, hasn't he, monsieur?”
”He's the worst ne'er-do-well in the world! one of those blades who make love to the first woman they see; who have three, four, five mistresses at the same time--I don't know how they manage it! I love the fair s.e.x, there's no doubt of that, and I cultivate it a.s.siduously, but I don't scatter myself about like that. _Ne quid nimis!_ That Latin axiom is my motto. Forgive me for using a dead language, madame; it slipped from my tongue.”
”I congratulate you, monsieur, for not behaving as Edmond does.”
”Freluchon's no better! Indeed, I think perhaps he's worse! He's a thorough scapegrace, and, as he's rich, he can do more than others; but he's an intimate friend of mine, and I don't propose to speak ill of him, especially as my late wife had much esteem for him.”
”Are you a widower, monsieur?”
”Alas! yes, madame; I have lost my Eleonore, my sweet better half! my faithful companion!”
Chamoureau was on the point of blowing his nose, but he checked himself, reflecting that it would be unwise to appear grief-stricken in that lady's company; and, laying aside his melancholy, he a.s.sumed a sprightly air.
”Does not madame dance?”
”Oh, no! monsieur, never at a masquerade. But what have you done with your two friends?”
”They are dancing, madame; they must be on the floor.”
”Between ourselves, Monsieur Chamoureau, it isn't good form to dance here, unless one is disguised as you are; then anything is allowable; but those gentlemen are not.”
”True; but they are not exactly dancing; the galop is the only thing they dance--the infernal galop.”
”Oh, yes! I remember: I saw Monsieur Edmond pa.s.s just now with a woman dressed as a _debardeur_--his mistress, I suppose?”
”Yes, that's one of his mistresses; it must be little Amelia; he was looking for her.”
”Who is this Amelia?”
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