"I think that she is very good-looking, that is to say, she must have been good-looking; her features are worn now--she is not young, is she, monsieur?" "No, certainly not. Was she pleasant and affable with you?" "Yes, monsieur, she was very polite; but her manner was rather haughty." "Very well, my child, go back to your flowers; next week you shall carry another bouquet to Madame de Grangeville." "Very good, monsieur; and must I let her think that that one too comes from a Monsieur de Merval? For she is fully persuaded that it was a gentleman of that name who sent me to her." "You must be very careful not to undeceive her." On leaving the count, the young flower girl met Georget, whom she told what she had been doing, and who walked with her to her booth, saying: "We have come back to Paris. Monsieur Malberg gives me writing and figuring to do and sends me on errands; but that won't prevent me from seeing you every day. I am so happy! every morning I will come to the boulevard to bid you good-morning, and in the evening I will come to help you carry home your flowers." "I agree to that, Georget, but only on condition that it doesn't interfere with your work. I haven't told you, but I believe that Monsieur Malberg will help me find my family." "Your family! what need of them have you now? Don't I fill the place of your family?" "But, Georget, a person is always very glad to have a family, and if I still had a mother----" "Your mother! as she abandoned you, it must have been that she didn't love you." "Who can tell? Perhaps she was compelled to." "And if your family should prove to be rich, they wouldn't be willing that I should be your husband perhaps. Look you, Violette, I prefer that you shouldn't find anybody." "What a child you are, Georget!" "There is someone that I would like to find, myself! But I would treat him as he deserves to be treated!" "Whom are you talking about, Georget?" "That Monsieur Jericourt, who laid that trap for you, and then went about saying----" "I beg you, Georget, let us say no more about that. You are convinced that I am not guilty, aren't you?" "Oh! can you ask me that, Violette?" "Well, my dear, don't think any more about that man; I don't want you to find him, do you understand? And if anything should happen to you, think of your mother, and of me. Would you like to kill us with grief? Besides, I never see him now, he never passes my booth." "And he does well! for if I should see him pass--But I don't know where he keeps himself now; no one ever sees him anywhere; Chicotin isn't any luckier than I am. I went to his lodgings, but he had moved; no one knows where he lives now; he must have left the quarter." "I beg of you, Georget, do not look for that man any more; if you do, you will make me very unhappy. Do you think that I haven't had sorrow enough?"