For this occasion Mademoiselle Rosette had made a toilet; she wore a green merino dress, a pretty shawl, a black velvet bonnet, with a tulle veil. It was all very becoming to her; moreover, her costume was suitable, without being pretentious; that fact denoted good taste. I offered her my arm, and she smilingly accepted it. We walked toward the cab stand. I put her into a little _citadine_, and as we drove away I began the conversation with a kiss; that leads at once to intimacy. My companion accepted the situation with the best grace imaginable. We were very good friends in short order. "Where are you taking me?" inquired Rosette. "To a restaurant." "Is it very far?" "Near the Jardin des Plantes, opposite the Orléans station--the Arc-en-Ciel. It seems to me that if we get away from the crowd, we shall be more at liberty, more at home. You're in no hurry, are you?" "Oh, no! that is to say, provided I'm at home at eleven o'clock." "Then we have plenty of time before us. By the way, where do you live?" "Suppose I don't choose to tell you?" "It shall be exactly as you choose." "I was joking. I live on Faubourg Saint-Denis, corner of Rue Chabrol." "The deuce! that's well up in the faubourg! And you go back there alone, at night, when you leave your work?" "To be sure!" "And you're not afraid?" "What should I be afraid of? Besides, I always have body-guards, men who follow me and protect me. But, speaking of that, monsieur, who was that lady who came to see you while we were polking? and who stayed there after I went, and looked at me as if she meant to count my eyelashes?" "That lady is a friend of mine." "I understand: she's your mistress!" "I assure you that she is not. If she were, I should have no reason to conceal the fact." "Oh! I don't know. There are some ladies who don't want to be given away--when they're married, for instance." "Once more, I assure you that she is a friend, and nothing more." "Oh! a friend! I know what that means! So she's an old one, eh?" "Neither old nor new. Do you suppose that, if that lady were my mistress, she would be obliging enough, when she found me dancing with you, to sit down at the piano and be our orchestra?" "Oh! but she played the polka fast enough to spoil our wind in a second. It was no use for me to call out: 'A little slower, please, madame!' she didn't listen to me, but banged and banged away! It was a sly trick to wind us both. Oh! I'm not so stupid as you think!" "But I have never thought that you were stupid; far from it!" "Really! tell me, do you think I am bright?" "I think you are charming." "That's no answer; I might be charming, and still be stupid. However, I don't care; as long as I please you, and you love me a little--I mean much; I want to be loved much--that's all I ask." She said all this with an abandon, a vivacity, which proved, at all events, that she did not stop to pick her words.