"Well, you made a conquest of her. Every day she said to me: 'Do find Monsieur de Roncherolle; invite me to dine again with Monsieur de Roncherolle; I want him to teach me other ways of--you know what.'--In fact, I never see her that she doesn't talk about you, and if you were younger and--and--and fresher, I should be jealous of you." "Thanks, thanks, a thousand times!" "By the way, allow me to congratulate you; you walk very well; have you got rid of your gout?" "For the time; it has held me pretty tight this fall." "And you have a bearing, a style--that coat you have on is very well-made, very well-cut, and of handsome cloth; is it wadded?" "As you say." "On my word of honor! I don't say it to flatter you, but in that overcoat you look ten years younger!" "In that case I am very sorry that I have only one." "By the way, let me tell you that I have profited by your lessons--you know, the way to drink champagne,--two glasses, one on top of the other, in a plate." "Yes; well?" "I have succeeded, I can do it; to be sure, I broke a dozen glasses, but I succeeded; your pupil does you credit." "I never doubted your ability--to drink champagne." "And that isn't all: you know my parrot, that I was teaching--the one that led to our becoming acquainted?" "Yes, I remember him; is he dead?" "No indeed; he is as well as you or I. But the delightful part of it is that I have succeeded again." "Really, you have made great progress since we last met." "My parrot says now what I wanted him to." "That was 'Good-morning, Monsieur Brillant,' I believe?" "No, deuce take it! he said that too much! He says--and only since yesterday, so you see that it isn't an old story--he says: 'Dutaillis is lovely! applaud, clap Zizi!'" "Ah! if he says all that, it's very fine; your friend must be enchanted." "I haven't given him to her yet, because it was only yesterday that he said the whole sentence; and you understand that, before giving him to Zizi, I wanted to be certain that he wouldn't make a mistake, that he wouldn't make a slip of the tongue." "That was decidedly prudent on your part." "By the way, an idea, a splendid idea has just occurred to me!" "The deuce! try to hold on to it." "You must be kind enough to dine with Zizi and me. In the first place, you owe us more lessons in champagne drinking." "Really, you are very tempting, but----" "Listen: during the dinner, I will have my parrot brought in, in--no matter what, I will find something--and he will deliver his compliment to my wife; you know we say 'my wife' now in speaking of a mistress, and she says 'my husband.'" "I didn't know that, and I confess that I should prefer anything else." "And what do you say to my idea about the bird? Fancy Zizi's surprise when she hears a compliment, and doesn't know where it comes from!" "Why yes, that may well be amusing."