"Speak, I beg you; explain yourself." "Of course--I believe I am treading on your foot now." "That's of no consequence." "First of all, madame, I must tell you that my name is Charles Rochebrune, that I was born in Paris, of respectable parents; I can easily prove what I assert." "Great heaven! do you take me for an examining magistrate? Why do you tell me all this?" "So that you may know that I am not a mere vagrant. I had some fortune once, and I still have about eight thousand francs a year." "Does this mean that you desire to marry me, monsieur? It is my duty to warn you that I am married." "No, madame, no; I don't say all this as a prelude to asking your hand; but so that you may know that I am not a nobody, a vagabond." "Oh! I assure you, monsieur, that you haven't the look of one." "True; but looks are so deceitful that sometimes---- Mon Dieu! now I am out of step." "Never mind; pray finish." "Very well! understand, then, madame, that I dined at this restaurant to-day with a number of other persons, all men. The dinner was given by Dupréval, a solicitor, who is about to marry. We celebrated his farewell to bachelorhood and drank to his approaching marriage; which is equivalent to telling you, madame, that the champagne was not spared. The dinner was prolonged to a late hour; we heard the music of this ball and of the one in the rear--for there's another wedding party there." "I know it, monsieur. Well?" "We were just going away, another young man and myself, who were the last to leave our dining-room, when the music, the delicious waltz they were playing, gave birth to the most insane idea." "Ah! I believe I can guess." "A little enlivened by the champagne, seduced by the melodious music--in short, madame, Balloquet said to me--Balloquet is my friend's name: 'Let's join the festivities, although we are not invited. Do you go to one, and I'll go to the other. If anybody notices our intrusion, if we are questioned, we'll say that we have made a mistake in the party.'--I allowed myself to be led away by Balloquet's reasoning; he went into the other ballroom, and I--I came here." Instead of being indignant, as I feared, my partner burst into a hearty laugh, which the music hardly sufficed to drown. I allowed her to laugh freely for several seconds, then I continued: "So you forgive me, madame?" "Oh! absolutely, monsieur. What you have done doesn't seem to be very criminal. It's a little audacious, perhaps, but so amusing!" "But, madame, it is most essential now that somebody should act as my sponsor; for the bride's brother, Monsieur Archibald, has noticed me; and just now, while I was conversing, unwittingly, with an immense nose, which proves to belong to the bride's father----" "Monsieur Guillardin?"