"_Ouiche!_" cried Rosette; "as if we hadn't time enough to see each other! Come, is it settled?" "It is settled, agreed, decided." "Let's start, then; it's after two o'clock already." "Go and call a cab, Pomponne, and we'll keep it the rest of the day." "Ah! what _chic!_ There's only one thing that annoys me now; and that will spoil my enjoyment at dinner." "What's that?" "If monsieur le docteur might smell less strong of rose! I should prefer I don't know what to that smell. Try going out in the street and walking in--no matter what!" "There is a way of satisfying you, Mademoiselle Rosette," I said, walking up to Balloquet.--"Come, Balloquet, we are all friends here; don't be stiff about it, but allow me to offer you another pair of gloves, and take off those you are wearing. I venture to prefer this petition in the name of these ladies' nerves, and in the name of our appetites, which would vanish before this odor of rose." Balloquet had a noble impulse: he took his gloves off and threw them out of the window. Rosette laughed till she cried. "Ah! it was the gloves," she cried, "cleansed gloves, of course, of course! But your dealer cheated you; they clean them now so that they don't smell of anything." Pomponne announced that the cab was waiting. While Mademoiselle Rosette stood before my mirror, busily engaged in putting on her bonnet, I went to Frédérique, and found an opportunity to say in her ear: "You are not joking--you are really willing to dine with a grisette?" "Why not? you are going to, yourself." "But I am a man." "Well! I am one of your male friends. Don't men sometimes take their friends with them on a pleasure party? But if it will annoy you too much, I will not go." "Oh! do not think that, madame! But I was afraid--I thought----" I had no time to say any more; Rosette came toward us, saying: "The cab's waiting; shall we go?" "Let us go," Frédérique replied. I was embarrassed for a moment; I intended to offer my arm to Madame Dauberny, but she had already accepted Balloquet's, and Rosette took possession of mine. "Come on, monsieur! What on earth's the matter with you to-day? Since you've seen my aunts, you're very absent-minded!" We entered the cab. Rosette insisted that I should sit opposite her. I obeyed. It seemed strange not to desire that arrangement, but I should have preferred to be facing Frédérique. The cabman asked us where we were going. We looked at each other and said: "Ah! that's so; where are we going?" "Let the ladies decide." "It makes absolutely no difference to me," said Frédérique. "In that case," said Rosette, "I propose Saint-Mandé; if we want to go as far as Saint-Maur, I know a delicious little walk; you only have to go up a little way and then down." "Saint-Mandé it is!"