"Olivier, you have heard my ideas on the subject. Your uncle approves them. I am resolved to change none of my bachelor habits in advance, and if I should abandon the idea of marriage altogether, think of my desolate situation, homeless and loveless! No, no, I am much too cautious and far-sighted not to--to preserve a pear to quench my thirst." "You're a man of infinite precautions, certainly. Very well, as I go and come I'll look at the notices of rooms to rent in the windows." "Two little rooms, with a private hall, is all I need. I'll look myself when we leave Madame Herbaut's, for time presses. Day after to-morrow is the fatal day. Say, Olivier, wouldn't it be strange if I should discover what I need right here? Do you remember the lines: "'What if in this same quiet spot I both sweet love and friendship true should find?' "The lines seem to me a fit motto for a shepherd's pipe; but what of that? Truth needs no ornamentation. But now on, on to the house of Madame Herbaut!" "You still insist? Consider well." "Olivier, you are really intolerable. I'll go alone if you won't accompany me." "Come, then, the die is cast. It is understood that you are simply Gerald Senneterre, a former comrade of mine." "Senneterre? No; that would be too imprudent. You had better call me Gerald Auvernay, for I am adorned with the marquisate of Auvernay, my dear Olivier, though you may not be aware of the fact." "You are M. Gerald Auvernay, then; that is decided. But the devil!" "What's the matter now?" "But what else are you going to be?" "What else am I going to be?" "Yes; what is to be your occupation?" "Why, a bachelor of the new school." "Pshaw! I can't introduce you to Madame Herbaut as a young man who is living on the income of the money he saved while in the army. Besides, Madame Herbaut receives no idlers. You would excite her suspicions at once, for the worthy woman strongly distrusts young men who have nothing to do but court pretty girls, for you'll find that her girls are pretty." "All this is certainly very amusing. Well, what do you want me to be?" "I haven't the slightest idea." "Let me see," said Gerald, laughing. "How would you like me to be an apothecary?" "That would do very well, I should think." "Oh, no, I was only joking; that wouldn't answer at all." "But there are some very nice and gentlemanly apothecaries, I assure you, Gerald." "But really I shouldn't dare to look any one of those pretty girls in the face." "Let's try to think of something else, then. What do you say to being the clerk of a notary? How does that suit you?" "Admirably. My mother has an interminable lawsuit on hand, and I drop in to see her notary and lawyer occasionally, so I can study the part from nature." "Very well, follow me, then, and I will introduce you as Gerald Auvernay, clerk to a notary." "Chief clerk to a notary," corrected Gerald, with great emphasis. "Come on, ambitious youth!"