"I am listening, mademoiselle; I am entirely at your service; I desired simply to prove to you that if I returned late to the office, I was not without some excuse. That idiot of a Plumard began at once to make remarks!" "Enough, monsieur!--Listen: I expect a service from you. Are you disposed to oblige me, and, above all things, never to say a word which may lead anyone to suspect that you have acted by my orders?" "Mademoiselle, I am entirely devoted to you; and as for my discretion---- Oh! there is no danger!" "But you are very fond of talking, monsieur, and of telling everything you have learned!" "Everything! That depends; I know many things now that nobody else knows--secrets; for instance, when Plumard----" "Well! do you propose to betray them now, monsieur?" "No, mademoiselle, no! I was about to say; even if Plumard should question me, he would learn nothing.--But what sort of service does mademoiselle require of me?" "Something very simple and very easy," said Valentine, opening a small desk and taking from it the white plume that Bahuchet had sold her. "Look, Monsieur Bahuchet, do you recognize this plume?" "Perfectly: it is the one I picked up on Rue Dauphine, under the balcony which Monsieur Léodgard de Marvejols had just scaled." "That is right. Well, I wish you to go to Landry's bathing establishment, and ask to see the fascinating Bathilde's mother. I know that she has returned home. You will hand this white plume to that woman and say to her: 'Your daughter's lovers lose their plumes at night when they scale balconies to join her; here is one belonging to a noble lord, whose name Mademoiselle Bathilde will be able to give you.'--Then you will bow and take your leave; and that is all. As I do not wish to put you out for nothing, be kind enough to accept this purse as compensation for the trouble I cause you." The little clerk observed at a glance the plumpness of the purse which Valentine offered him with the plume; but he hesitated about taking them. "Well?" continued the nobly born maiden, testily; "are you not willing to do what I ask?" "Pardon, pardon, mademoiselle; assuredly, I am too fortunate in the confidence which you manifest in me." "Then take this plume and this purse!" "But, you see, I am wondering in my own mind how Dame Ragonde will take it--that is young Bathilde's mother's name. I know the family. Dame Ragonde is a very bad one, they say; and when I tell her that her daughter receives lovers at night, that will not afford her great pleasure! What if she should fall on me with fists and claws?" "What, Monsieur Bahuchet! You, who claim to be so brave, afraid of a woman's anger?" "Because with a woman one must accept anything without retaliating; whereas, with a man--what a difference! If he ventures to lack respect, to strike us, why, we fall on him and pay him back twice or thrice what we have received."