"Mon Dieu, yes! I ought not to have done it, but I couldn't contain myself. When you didn't come, I said to myself that some accident must have happened to you, or else you were sick. Oh! I was awfully unhappy." This time the girl's voice trembled, not with anger, but with sobs; and Paul, who was close beside her, took her hand and pressed it lovingly in his own, saying: "How happy I am! you still love me! Ah! this moment makes me forget all my cares. To think that anyone should dare to say that I love any other woman! You do not believe it, Elina, you will never believe it! Poor messenger that I am, am I not fortunate enough to be loved by you? what more could I desire?" "Yes, I believe that you love me. I won't be angry any more; it makes one too wretched to be angry with a person one loves. Look at me; I am willing to see your face now. Oh! it seems to me that you have grown paler, that you have changed, since I saw you. Have you been sick?" "No; it's the vexation and disappointment I have suffered." "You haven't told me yet what you were doing those eleven days." "I have been with a person, a friend, who was very ill; he had nobody but me to take care of him, so I could not leave him." "Oh! in that case, I am not angry with you any more. But you never mentioned this friend to me." "Because I seldom see him--only when he needs me." "You are not lying to me? you haven't taken anybody's mistress?" "I have thought of nobody but you." "Good! now I am happy again. I had so many things to tell you; but when two people are together, they don't think--that is to say, they think too much--well, I don't know how it happens, but I forget everything else." "Dear Elina!" "Oh! wait--I remember now. First of all, there's a young man--one of those who came and laughed at us, you remember, when we were in the loft." "Yes, indeed, I remember; but which one?" "He's tall, but not handsome, and he has a bold, impertinent manner." "I see which you mean; it must be Monsieur Célestin." "Well, I noticed several times that he followed me when I came out of Madame Dumanchon's at night, to go home; he walked very close to me, and spoke to me, said a lot of foolish things, I don't know what, for I didn't listen, I never once answered him, and I walked so fast, to avoid hearing him, that I assure you he had to run to keep up with me.--'If Monsieur Paul was here with me,' I said to myself, 'he wouldn't dare to follow me, and I shouldn't be afraid of this horrid man.'" "Poor Elina! did that fellow dare to insult you?" "I don't know whether he did or not, for I didn't listen to him. Once he tried to take my arm and stop me, but I released myself so quickly, and pushed him away so hard, that he stood as if he was dazed, in the middle of the street. Well, he didn't follow me any more, and I was very glad; but this morning----" "This morning?" "One of your comrades--not Sans-Cravate, but the other one----" "Jean Ficelle?"