"My neighbor appeared at her window. It was impossible for her not to see my damsel. I was enchanted, and said to myself: 'She sees that I am with another, and she will surely be annoyed.' Moreover, the young woman I had hired was very pretty and might pass for a creditable conquest, having, in accordance with my orders, clothed herself in a very stylish gown. But imagine my sensations when she began to smoke an enormous cigar, a genuine panetela! I tried to remonstrate; she answered that it was good form. I had become resigned to the cigar, when she suddenly called out to a young man who passed along the street: 'Monsieur Ernest, don't expect me to pose for you as Venus to-morrow. I am posing here, where I get double pay, and don't have to be all naked as I do at your studio, where I'm always catching cold in the head and other places.' "Judge of my despair! my neighbor must have heard, for she laughed till she cried. You can imagine that I dismissed my _poseuse_ instantly. But see what strange creatures women are! For the next few days, I was so depressed and shamefaced that I dared not show myself at my window. Well! then it was that my neighbor deigned at last to answer one of my notes, and I became the happiest of men." "We might call that the 'window intrigue.'--Now, Roland." Monsieur Roland was a young blade with enormous whiskers, and all the self-possession and _frou-frou_ of a commercial traveller. He threw out his chest when he began to speak. "I adored a lady who resisted my advances, messieurs. One day I succeeded in inducing her to go up in a balloon with me. When we were once in the air, I said to her: 'My dear love, if you continue to be cruel, I'll cut a hole in the balloon, and it will be all over with both of us.'--My charmer ceased to resist me, and I assure you, messieurs, that it's very pleasant to make love among the clouds." "I call for an encore for that." "And I am wondering whether Roland always has a balloon at his disposal, already inflated, to enable him to triumph over women who try to resist him." "What, messieurs! do you doubt the truth of my story?" "On the contrary, it is delicious," said Montricourt; "I am simply trying to think of one that would be worthy to serve as a pendant to your balloon."