"To ask you to go to the play and to supper." "Ah! what a fine idea! But perhaps we wouldn't have accepted?" "That _perhaps_ relieves my mind. There was nothing improper in my suggestion." "Monsieur certainly has too gentlemanly an air for anybody to distrust him." "Damnation!" said Cherami to himself; "what a pity that I haven't a sou! I'll bet they would accept now." "Where did you look for us, monsieur?" "Why, in all the feather-shops on Rue Saint-Denis." "Ah! you would have had to look a long while. We're not in the feather business now; we have changed." "What are you in now?" "Pearls; we string pearls." "Ah! that's a very pretty trade. I have never worked in pearls myself, and yet I would have liked----" "Here's our 'bus, Laurette--come. Adieu, monsieur!" "In what quarter, please?" "Rue des Arcis." The young women climbed into the omnibus, and Cherami watched them ride away. He sighed, muttered a malediction against fate, tapped his trousers with his switch, and continued his promenade. But he had not walked a hundred yards, when he found himself face to face with a young lady dressed in mourning, who stopped and bestowed a gracious salutation upon him. Cherami bowed to the ground, for he had recognized Auguste Monleard's young widow. "Good-morning, monsieur! do you recognize me?" said Fanny, with a smile. "Ah! madame, I must be short-sighted to the last degree to have forgotten your enchanting face after I had seen it once!" "But this mourning changes one a good deal." "Whether you wear black, or pink, or nothing at all, I will answer for it that you will always be charming. Indeed, I should prefer the last." "You are very gallant, Monsieur Cherami!" "I am delighted to find that madame remembers my name." "I have not forgotten it, monsieur; indeed, I was very anxious to see you." "Really! If I could have dreamed of such a thing, madame, I would have done myself the honor to call upon you long since." "I wanted first of all to thank you for your kindness in going to my father's to perform an unpleasant errand." "Oh! let us say no more of that, I beg! Have you any other commission to intrust to me? I am at your service, I have nothing to do; command me." "I thank you, Monsieur Cherami. Do you know Monsieur Gustave Darlemont?" "Do I know him! He is my best friend, my Euryalus, my Orestes, my Pythias.--Yes, indeed, madame; I do know him and appreciate him; he is a charming fellow, who deserves to be loved." "Tell me frankly, Monsieur Cherami,--surely you have no reason now to conceal the truth from me,--did Gustave ask you to fight with my husband?" "Ah! so madame knows that it was I who----" "Who fought a duel with Monsieur Monleard. To be sure; but have no fear; I bear you no ill-will at all for that." "She's a charming creature," said Cherami to himself; "I fancy that she would bear me no more ill-will if I had killed her husband."