"Chevalier, do not recur to this subject. It is useless for you to attempt to lead me back to a person--whom I do not choose to see. For I understand that the little girl is only a pretext; you talk to me of the child, in order to reconcile me with the mother." "And if that were true, count? The time is not so far away when I met you one night keeping watch under her windows. Oh! then she was an angel, you adored her, you could not live without her! and to-day----" "Enough, Jarnonville, enough!" Léodgard raised his voice as he uttered these last words in an angry tone; and several of the guests, who happened to be walking in that part of the garden, hurried to the spot, thinking that a quarrel was on. "What is it, messieurs, what's the matter?" asked the Baron de Montrevert, who was one of the first to arrive. "Are you at odds here? What! two excellent friends--Léodgard and the Sire de Jarnonville!" "No matter!" cried Sénange; "if you need seconds, here we are!" "But first you must tell us the cause of your falling-out." "You are mistaken, my masters!" rejoined Léodgard, calm once more. "There is neither quarrel nor falling-out between us; I was talking with the chevalier, and I may have become a little heated and have raised my voice. But we have no inclination to fight, for we have no reason to cease to be friends." "Oh! that's a pity!" muttered Monclair, walking away. "It would have amused me to see them cross swords." "He did not choose to tell us the truth," said Montrevert, leading his friends away. "But we are not his dupes. He probably has got wind of Jarnonville's visits to his wife, and he was saying two words to him on the subject." "In that case, they will fight at the first opportunity." "That is inevitable!" "Ah! here is Flavia!" "And pretty Nadina! Come with us for a stroll, enchantresses!" The two courtesans to whom these words were addressed turned back toward the salons, saying: "No, indeed, we will not walk in the gardens with you, seigneurs; you have too pronounced a penchant for the dark paths." "Besides, I want to dance!" said little Nadina, who was rather stout for her short stature, but who carried her premature embonpoint with such graceful abandon and such a saucy expression that the men felt drawn toward the _Little Ball_, a sobriquet which her female friends had given her. "She wants to dance, in order to melt her fat!" whispered Flavia to one of the gentlemen. "Why so? for my part, I think her very comely as she is." "Bah! one cannot see any figure!" "I assure you that one can see some very pretty things!" "As if men knew anything about it!" "Ah! that remark is characteristic of a woman! They try to captivate, to seduce men, and then they declare that men are not capable of judging them!"