“Good-evening, my dear Gaston,” said Marguerite to my companion. “I am very glad to see you. Why didn’t you come to see me in my box at the Varietes?”

“I was afraid it would be indiscreet.”

“Friends,” and Marguerite lingered over the word, as if to intimate to those who were present that in spite of the familiar way in which she greeted him, Gaston was not and never had been anything more than a friend, “friends are always welcome.”

“Then, will you permit me to introduce M. Armand Duval?”

“I had already authorized Prudence to do so.”

“As far as that goes, madame,” I said, bowing, and succeeding in getting more or less intelligible sounds out of my throat, “I have already had the honour of being introduced to you.”

Marguerite’s beautiful eyes seemed to be looking back in memory, but she could not, or seemed not to, remember.

“Madame,” I continued, “I am grateful to you for having forgotten the occasion of my first introduction, for I was very absurd and must have seemed to you very tiresome. It was at the Opera Comique, two years ago; I was with Ernest de ——.”

“Ah, I remember,” said Marguerite, with a smile. “It was not you who were absurd; it was I who was mischievous, as I still am, but somewhat less. You have forgiven me?”

And she held out her hand, which I kissed.

“It is true,” she went on; “you know I have the bad habit of trying to embarrass people the first time I meet them. It is very stupid. My doctor says it is because I am nervous and always ill; believe my doctor.”

“But you seem quite well.”

“Oh! I have been very ill.”

“I know.”

“Who told you?”

“Every one knew it; I often came to inquire after you, and I was happy to hear of your convalescence.”

“They never gave me your card.”

“I did not leave it.”

“Was it you, then, who called every day while I was ill, and would never leave your name?”

“Yes, it was I.”

“Then you are more than indulgent, you are generous. You, count, wouldn’t have done that,” said she, turning toward M. de N., after giving me one of those looks in which women sum up their opinion of a man.

“I have only known you for two months,” replied the count.

“And this gentleman only for five minutes. You always say something ridiculous.”

Women are pitiless toward those whom they do not care for. The count reddened and bit his lips.

I was sorry for him, for he seemed, like myself, to be in love, and the bitter frankness of Marguerite must have made him very unhappy, especially in the presence of two strangers.

“You were playing the piano when we came in,” I said, in order to change the conversation. “Won’t you be so good as to treat me as an old acquaintance and go on?”

“Oh,” said she, flinging herself on the sofa and motioning to us to sit down, “Gaston knows what my music is like. It is all very well when I am alone with the count, but I won’t inflict such a punishment on you.”

“You show me that preference?” said M. de N., with a smile which he tried to render delicately ironical.

“Don’t reproach me for it. It is the only one.” It was fated that the poor man was not to say a single word. He cast a really supplicating glance at Marguerite.

“Well, Prudence,” she went on, “have you done what I asked you to do?”

“Yes.

“All right. You will tell me about it later. We must talk over it; don’t go before I can speak with you.”

“We are doubtless intruders,” I said, “and now that we, or rather I, have had a second introduction, to blot out the first, it is time for Gaston and me to be going.”

“Not in the least. I didn’t mean that for you. I want you to stay.”

The count took a very elegant watch out of his pocket and looked at the time. “I must be going to my club,” he said. Marguerite did not answer. The count thereupon left his position by the fireplace and going up to her, said: “Adieu, madame.”

Marguerite rose. “Adieu, my dear count. Are you going already?”

“Yes, I fear I am boring you.”

“You are not boring me today more than any other day. When shall I be seeing you?”

“When you permit me.”

“Good-bye, then.”

It was cruel, you will admit. Fortunately, the count had excellent manners and was very good-tempered. He merely kissed Marguerite’s hand, which she held out to him carelessly enough, and, bowing to us, went out.

As he crossed the threshold, he cast a glance at Prudence. She shrugged her shoulders, as much as to say:

“What do you expect? I have done all I could.”

“Nanine!” cried Marguerite. “Light M. le Comte to the door.”

We heard the door open and shut.

“At last,” cried Marguerite, coming back, “he has gone! That man gets frightfully on my nerves!”

“My dear child,” said Prudence, “you really treat him too badly, and he is so good and kind to you. Look at this watch on the mantel-piece, that he gave you: it must have cost him at least three thousand francs, I am sure.”

And Mme. Duvernoy began to turn it over, as it lay on the mantel-piece, looking at it with covetous eyes.

“My dear,” said Marguerite, sitting down to the piano, “when I put on one side what he gives me and on the other what he says to me, it seems to me that he buys his visits very cheap.”

“The poor fellow is in love with you.”

“If I had to listen to everybody who was in love with me, I shouldn’t have time for my dinner.”

And she began to run her fingers over the piano, and then, turning to us, she said:

“What will you take? I think I should like a little punch.”

“And I could eat a little chicken,” said Prudence. “Suppose we have supper?”

“That’s it, let’s go and have supper,” said Gaston.

“No, we will have supper here.”

She rang, and Nanine appeared.

“Send for some supper.”

“What must I get?”

“Whatever you like, but at once, at once.”

Nanine went out.

“That’s it,” said Marguerite, jumping like a child, “we’ll have supper. How tiresome that idiot of a count is!”

The more I saw her, the more she enchanted me. She was exquisitely beautiful. Her slenderness was a charm. I was lost in contemplation.

What was passing in my mind I should have some difficulty in explaining. I was full of indulgence for her life, full of admiration for her beauty. The proof of disinterestedness that she gave in not accepting a rich and fashionable young man, ready to waste all his money upon her, excused her in my eyes for all her faults in the past.

There was a kind of candour in this woman. You could see she was still in the virginity of vice. Her firm walk, her supple figure, her rosy, open nostrils, her large eyes, slightly tinged with blue, indicated one of those ardent natures which shed around them a sort of voluptuous perfume, like Eastern vials, which, close them as tightly as you will, still let some of their perfume escape. Finally, whether it was simple nature or a breath of fever, there passed from time to time in the eyes of this woman a glimmer of desire, giving promise of a very heaven for one whom she should love. But those who had loved Margueri............