"How warm you are, Monsieur Sylvestre!" said Bijou, as she held out her hand to him; "and they have not brought you anything to drink yet! Josephine!" she called out, as she moved towards the door between the two rooms, "will you tell them to bring--ah, yes, what are they to bring? What will you take, Monsieur Sylvestre?--beer, lemonade, wine, or what? I never remember!" "Some lemonade, if you please; but you really are too good, mademoiselle, to trouble about me." "I forgot to buy the music you told me to get when I was at Pont-sur-Loire," said Denyse, interrupting him. "You will scold me." "Oh! mademoiselle!" he exclaimed, in a scared way, "_I_ scold you?" "Yes, you! If you do not scold me you ought to. Now, let me see! What are we going to play? Ah! I was forgetting! I am going to ask you if you will begin by accompanying me at the piano; it is just a silly little song I am learning." "What song is it?" "'Ay Chiquita'! it is quite grotesque, isn't it? But we have an old friend who adores it, and he asked me to sing it for him." "Oh! as to that!--'Ay Chiquita'--it isn't so grotesque; but it has been worn out, that's all. Ah!" he added, looking at the music, "you sing it in a higher key. I was wondering, too--" "Yes, I sing it higher; that makes it more dreadful still. Oh, dear! how I do wish I had a deep voice; they are so lovely--deep voices, but there are none to be heard!" "They are rare, certainly; but there are some, nevertheless." "I have never heard one," said Bijou, shaking her head. "Well, but you might hear one if you liked." "Where?" "Why, at the Pont-sur-Loire theatre. Yes, Mademoiselle Lisette Renaud, a young actress, with a great deal of talent, and she is very pretty, too, which is not a drawback, by any means." "She has a beautiful voice?" "Very beautiful! I hear her, on an average, three times a week, without reckoning the rehearsals with the orchestra, and, I can assure you, I have never had enough." "Ah! Do you think she would sing at private houses?" "Why, certainly! She does sing sometimes at Pont-sur-Loire." "I will ask grandmamma to have her here. Where does she live?" "Rue Rabelais. I do not remember the number, but she is very well known." After a short silence, the professor asked: "Why should you not go to the theatre to hear her? That would interest you much more." "Grandmamma would never let me." "I know, of course, that society people do not go to the Pont-sur-Loire theatre--it is not considered the thing; but there are circumstances,--for instance--in a fortnight from now there is to be a performance for the benefit of disabled soldiers, organised by the _Dames de France_; everyone will go to that." "And they will play things that will be all right?" "Oh! some comic opera or another, and varieties from other things; but I am sure Lisette Renaud will be on the programme, and several times, too. These are the best sort of things that we have at the theatre."