"No. That isn't where Albert is to meet us, but at a nice little restaurant over yonder." "A restaurant! but I have dined!" "Really--you have dined? Ah! that's a pity; however, we can take something all the same." "You act as if you weren't certain of the place where Albert is to meet us." "I beg your pardon--look--that is the place." "What! under that mountebank's tent?" "No; behind it--that café. Yes, that's the place." Tobie led his charge into a sort of café, and told the waiter who came forward to meet them to show them to one of the private rooms on the first floor. Madame Plays did not seem at all alarmed when she heard her escort ask for a private room. She was afraid of nothing; indeed, she was strong enough to check any enterprise which did not please her. So she followed with an assured step as the waiter led them upstairs, then through a passageway, and opened the door of a small room looking on the Champs-Élysées. "What can I offer you?" inquired Tobie of his charming companion; "ices, punch?" "I will take an ice." "Very good.--Waiter, some ices." As the waiter left the room, Madame Plays exclaimed: "Why don't you tell him that a gentleman will come and ask for us?" "Ah! yes, to be sure." And Pigeonnier ran out of the room, overtook the waiter in the hall, and said to him: "Don't bring any biscuits or macaroons or cakes with the ices; madame doesn't like any of those things; nothing but ices, you understand." "We always serve them with ices," replied the waiter, with an offended air; "but you're not obliged to eat them." "Yes; but I tell you it isn't worth while to serve them." "Very well, monsieur." The corpulent young man danced back to the room in which he had left his charge, who had removed her hat and shawl. "Excellent," said Tobie to himself; "she is making herself at home; she made no fuss about coming to a private room, so I conclude that the affair will go of itself." "What can we see from here, I wonder?" said Madame Plays, walking to the window. "Oh! nothing attractive," said Tobie, who preferred that the window should remain closed. "We are right above those travelling showmen, who have set up their booth close to the house, and exhibit bears and panthers and other monsters, I believe. If I were the proprietor of this restaurant, it seems to me that I wouldn't have them so near." "Why not?" said his fair companion, with a smile; "everybody must live, must they not?" "Everybody, yes, but not monsters. On my word, I detest monsters--but I idolize beauty." As Tobie concluded this sentence, he took Madame Plays's hand and imprinted a kiss upon it; the charming creature allowed her hand to be kissed without objection. The waiter brought the ices; as he placed them on the table, he looked with amazement at the lady who did not like biscuits; he spent a long time arranging the ices and spoons, and when he had finished he did not leave the room; so that Pigeonnier was obliged to say to him: