"But what the devil are you doing there?" cried Prudence, who had come
in without our bearing her, and who now stood just inside the door, with
her hair half coming down and her dress undone. I recognised the hand of
Gaston.
"We are talking sense," said Marguerite; "leave us alone; we will be
back soon."
"Good, good! Talk, my children," said Prudence, going out and closing
the door behind her, as if to further emphasize the tone in which she
had said these words.
"Well, it is agreed," continued Marguerite, when we were alone, "you
won't fall in love with me?"
"I will go away."
"So much as that?"
I had gone too far to draw back; and I was really carried away. This
mingling of gaiety, sadness, candour, prostitution, her very malady,
which no doubt developed in her a sensitiveness to impressions, as well
as an irritability of nerves, all this made it clear to me that if from
the very beginning I did not completely dominate her light and forgetful
nature, she was lost to me.
"Come, now, do you seriously mean what you say?" she said.
"Seriously."
"But why didn't you say it to me sooner?"
"When could I have said it?"
"The day after you had been introduced to me at the Opera Comique."
"I thought you would have received me very badly if I had come to see
you."
"Why?"
"Because I had behaved so stupidly."
"That's true. And yet you were already in love with me."
"Yes."
"And that didn't hinder you from going to bed and sleeping quite
comfortably. One knows what that sort of love means."
"There you are mistaken. Do you know what I did that evening, after the
Opera Comique?"
"No."
"I waited for you at the door of the Cafe Anglais. I followed the
carriage in which you and your three friends were, and when I saw you
were the only one to get down, and that you went in alone, I was very
happy."
Marguerite began to laugh.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Nothing."
"Tell me, I beg of you, or I shall think you are still laughing at me."
"You won't be cross?"
"What right have I to be cross?"
"Well, there was a sufficient reason why I went in alone."