"My charming neighbor, I confess that that meeting was not very agreeable to me!" "Oh! I believe you there!" "In the first place, Jolibois was drunk; it was easy enough to see that he'd been drinking too much, for he didn't know what he was saying. He recognized me--and then he took me for somebody else." Georgette stopped, looked her escort squarely in the face, and said in a very sharp tone: "Monsieur Dupont, do you take me for a fool?" "I, mademoiselle? God forbid! On the contrary, I have every reason to know that you have a very keen intellect, that you reason perfectly, and that you are also exceedingly shrewd and satirical." "In that case, monsieur, don't try to go on with the lies you have told me, in which, by the way, I never placed much faith: for you are much more like a Limousin than an American. You were never an American. You came to Paris from Brives-la-Gaillarde, as your friend Jolibois has just told you. But what I am least able to forgive is your passing yourself off as a widower while your wife is still living! Fie, monsieur! to deny your wife is a shameful thing!" Dupont saw that he must abandon falsehood. "Mademoiselle," he faltered. "Well, yes--it is true--I admit it. But I was so anxious to make your acquaintance! And if I had told you I was married, you wouldn't have consented to receive me." "Why not? On the contrary, it would have given me more confidence in you. I would have said: 'Here's a man who doesn't try to deceive me.'--But to pretend to be a widower--to attempt to play the bachelor here, while your poor wife is lamenting your absence, no doubt!" "Oh, no! you may be quite easy in your mind as to that! My wife doesn't lament my absence in the least. She was one of the first to urge me to come to Paris, and to come without her." "And to pretend to be a bachelor?" "I don't say that she went so far as that; but when a woman allows her husband to travel without her, that means that she is willing he should play the bachelor; for, after all, my dear little neighbor, men aren't nuns, and you understand----" "Enough, monsieur, enough! not another word on that subject!" "Very good; I ask nothing better.--But I think I felt a drop of rain." "Yes, it's raining. Let's go back to the restaurant; there will probably be room now." They returned to Bonvalet's, where the waiter made the same reply: "Everything's taken in the public room; but I happen to have a private room; I advise you to take it quick, or somebody else will get possession." Dupont looked at Georgette, who replied: "All right! let's take the private room, as we can't do anything else." Our gallant was overjoyed. The waiter escorted them into a warm, comfortable, well-closed room, where a table was already laid for two. "Really, one would think that they expected us!" said Georgette, removing her bonnet and shawl. "Guests are always expected at a restaurant." "Of course; but these two covers all laid!"