“Bah! I don’t care a fig for your correct thing!” said Mademoiselle Malvina; “for my part I’d just as lief walk about Paris in a Swiss costume. I say, why mightn’t I be a real Swiss?” “If you wore an oyster woman’s costume, my dear girl, it’s much more probable that no one would think that you were disguised.” “Well! well! that’s a joke, I suppose! how ugly you are! When you’re out-at-elbows the way you sometimes are, you don’t look any too much like a count yourself!” Daréna laughed heartily and tapped Malvina on the cheek, saying: “Come, come, hold your tongue, and above all things behave decently, mesdames; in the country a mild sort of freedom is permissible, but at the Rocher de Cancale, and in the honorable company with which you are to dine, remember, my little shepherdesses, that if you are not discreet I shall be obliged to turn you out of the room.” “Bless my soul! we know how to behave, monsieur! Do you think we never go into swell society?” “Why, I often dine with my friend and his brother, who’s one of the biggest butchers in Paris!” “And I sometimes keep my cousin’s desk; she’s a baker and sells pastry, and only gentlemen with canary-colored gloves come to her little place to eat.” “Very good, mesdames, very good; we are certain now that you are worthy to go into good society, and that you know how to behave decorously. Oh! if Monsieur d’Hurbain had not come to dine with us! But he has come, for I see him and Monfréville getting out of the tilbury. We have arrived; come, my young marquis, hand out the ladies.” The carriage stopped and the door was opened; a porcupine’s head appeared, surmounting a body clad in an old nut-colored box-coat, the collar of which was marred by some very extensive spots of grease. It was Monsieur Poterne, who had stepped forward to assist the ladies to alight. Malvina drew back, crying: “Great God! what sort of thing is that? An owl, a hedgehog?” “It is my--my business agent,” replied Daréna; “he has looked to it that everything is properly prepared, and now he has come to assist you to alight; he is an extremely obliging man.” “He may possibly be obliging, but he is very ugly; isn’t he, Rosina?” “Yes. Oh! how stupid it is to be ugly like that!” “And when you look from him to our charming little Monsieur Chérubin!” “Gad! there’s as much difference as there is between the sun and a flea!” “Come, mesdames, get out of the carriage; you can talk upstairs.” The company soon assembled in the salon where the table was laid. Messieurs d’Hurbain and Monfréville had arrived at the same time with the cab containing Chérubin and the dancers. The notary went to Daréna and said in his ear: “I trust, my dear count, that your dancers will behave properly here. I agree that by their graceful dancing and their bright eyes they have fascinated this young man; but he is still a mere child, who ought not to consort with ballet dancers----”