"Yes; I have something on my mind, some important business, and I was glad not to be disturbed." "In that case, I'll leave you. I am waiting for somebody who agreed to meet me on the boulevard here; but he's late, and I am going to dine. Good-day, neighbor; and a good appetite!" "Your servant!" Gerville closed the door of Raymond's room and went into another, passing ours as he did so. "Well, mademoiselle," I said to Agathe, "choose; to which of these gentlemen will you give the preference?" "Oh! I have a delicious idea!" "Some crazy scheme, I'll be bound, for you think of no other kind." "This will be unique. Help me, my dear Eugène, I beg you." Without another word to me, Agathe began to stride up and down the room; she pushed the chairs about, threw some of them down, and, amid the uproar, cried out from time to time: "Don't be angry with me, my friend! I assure you that you are mistaken. I give you my word that I haven't seen Raymond; that I don't care for him! Ask Dorsan; he invited me to dinner, because he was expecting a lady." I began to understand Agathe's plan; she proposed to make Raymond think that Gerville was with us. To second her, I also made noise enough for two, and attempted now and then to imitate Gerville's voice. We stopped at last, tired out by our comedy; Agathe made me a sign which I understood; I left the room, the door of which she locked behind me, and stole on tiptoe into Raymond's, where I found him shivering and half dead with terror in front of a beefsteak with potatoes. I locked the door before approaching him, and put a finger to my lips; we had the aspect of two conspirators. Raymond spoke so low at this time that I could hardly hear him. "He's in there," I said, pointing to the next room. "Oh! I know it only too well; I heard him. But how did it happen?" "We thought he had gone downstairs, and we opened our door; but he was on the watch; he saw Agathe and came in. Then there was a terrible scene, for he suspected that she came here with you; I'm not the one of whom he is jealous." "Parbleu! I know only too well that it's I. I saw plainly enough just now that he didn't believe what I told him. He had doubts; perhaps he saw us coming along the boulevard." "That is quite possible; you are so infernally imprudent! When you arrange such a party as this, you should take a cab, and enter the restaurant by the rear door." "That's so; you are right; we ought to have come in from behind! but I promise you that I'll go out that way." "He thought at first that I was in your confidence, that I was here solely to help you. In fact, I am exposing myself to some risk in your behalf." "Ah! my dear Dorsan! never while I live shall I forget what I owe to you!" "However, things are beginning to calm down. Agathe has succeeded in making him listen to reason; she told him that she came here for no other purpose than to watch him; she's playing the jealous lover now."