"I?--not at all. You were to see to them. You are a nice one to count on for the stage properties! I say, Noemi, if you were married, would it ever dawn upon you to give your husband a purse? It's rather shoppy, isn't it? Why not a smoking-cap, at once?" "Are we going to rehearse?" asked Denoisel. "Oh, Denoisel, you said that just like a man who really wants to go and have a smoke!" "I always do want to smoke, Renee," answered Denoisel, "and especially when I ought not to." "Why, it's quite a vice, then, with you." "I should just think it is; and so I keep it." "Well, but what pleasure can you find in smoking?" "The pleasure of a bad habit--that is the explanation of many passions. '_Good evening, my dear_,'" he repeated, once more going back to M. de Chavigny's arrival on the scene, "'_do I disturb you_?'" "_Disturb me, Henri--what a question!_" replied Noemi. And the rehearsal continued. XV "Three o'clock," said Renee, looking up at the time-piece from the little woollen stocking she was knitting. "Really, I begin to think Noemi will not come to-day. She'll spoil the rehearsal. We shall have to fine her." "Noemi?" put in Mme. Mauperin, as though she had just woke up. "Why, she isn't coming. Oh, I never told you! I don't know what's the matter with me--I forget everything lately. She told me last time that very probably she would not be able to come to-day. They are expecting some people--I fancy--I forget----" "Well, that's pleasant! There is nothing more tiresome than that--to expect people who don't come after all. And this morning when I woke I said to myself, 'It's Noemi's day.' I was looking forward to having her. Oh, it's quite certain she won't come now. It's funny how I miss her now--Noemi, when she isn't here--ever since she began to take me on again. I miss her just as though she were one of the family. I don't think her amusing, she isn't lively, she isn't at all gay, and then as regards intelligence, why, she's rather feeble--you can take her in so easily. And yet--how is it now?--in spite of all that there is a fascination about her. There is something so sweet, so very sweet about her, and it seems to penetrate you. She calms your nerves, positively, and then the effect she has on you--why, she seems to warm your heart for you, and only by being there, near you. I've known lots of girls who had really more in them, but they haven't what she has. I've always felt as cold as steel with all of them." "Oh, well, it's very simple," said Denoisel. "Mlle. Bourjot is of a very affectionate, loving disposition. There is a sort of current of affection between such natures and others."