"Come, come, madame, be calm," said Nanine; "your nerves are a bit upset
to-night."
"This dress worries me," continued Marguerite, unhooking her bodice;
"give me a dressing-gown. Well, and Prudence?"
"She has not come yet, but I will send her to you, madame, the moment
she comes."
"There's one, now," Marguerite went on, as she took off her dress and
put on a white dressing-gown, "there's one who knows very well how to
find me when she is in want of me, and yet she can't do me a service
decently. She knows I am waiting for an answer. She knows how anxious I
am, and I am sure she is going about on her own account, without giving
a thought to me."
"Perhaps she had to wait."
"Let us have some punch."
"It will do you no good, madame," said Nanine.
"So much the better. Bring some fruit, too, and a pate or a wing of
chicken; something or other, at once. I am hungry."
Need I tell you the impression which this scene made upon me, or can you
not imagine it?
"You are going to have supper with me," she said to me; "meanwhile, take
a book. I am going into my dressing-room for a moment."
She lit the candles of a candelabra, opened a door at the foot of the
bed, and disappeared.
I began to think over this poor girl's life, and my love for her was
mingled with a great pity. I walked to and fro in the room, thinking
over things, when Prudence entered.
"Ah, you here?"' she said, "where is Marguerite?"
"In her dressing-room."
"I will wait. By the way, do you know she thinks you charming?"
"No."
"She hasn't told you?"
"Not at all."
"How are you here?"
"I have come to pay her a visit."
"At midnight?"
"Why not?"
"Farceur!"
"She has received me, as a matter of fact, very badly."
"She will receive you better by and bye."
"Do you think so?"
"I have some good news for her."
"No harm in that. So she has spoken to you about me?"
"Last night, or rather to-night, when you and your friend went. By the
way, what is your friend called? Gaston R., his name is, isn't it?"