The adventure of the pie amused the guests mightily; Saint-Arthur alone did not share his friends' gayety; at every mouthful that he swallowed, he muttered: "My poor parrot! my poor Coco! how prettily he said: 'Dutaillis is lovely!'--What a misfortune!--'Applaud, clap Zizi!'--I shall never be consoled." "You are going to begin by being consoled right away," said the young actress; "and don't bore us any longer with your complaints. Don't you see that the story of your pie is a hundred times better and funnier than your bird would have been? But here comes the dessert. I want some champagne now, and I want my good friend Roncherolle to keep his promise to us." "Monsieur is going to begin his exercises!" said Jericourt ironically. "Let us see if it is the same thing as at Nicolet's: worse and worse and more of it." "We will do our utmost to satisfy monsieur," replied Roncherolle, emptying a glass of champagne. "But first of all," said Zizi, "as I am rather inquisitive, I want to hear the story of that little bunch of violets that you promised me." "Ah! so he has stories too!" muttered the literary man; "sapristi! we are going to have a deal of entertainment!" "Perhaps you will have much more than you expect, monsieur," replied Roncherolle, with a meaning glance at Jericourt. "But I begin--this little bunch of violets I got from a flower girl,--nothing more commonplace than that, eh? But what is less commonplace is that this young flower girl, who is remarkably pretty, is as virtuous and respectable as she is pretty. Now, this is what happened to her last summer: a young man of the world, a dandy, who, I believe, claims to be a literary man, saw the charming flower girl and found her to his liking; he made such speeches to her as all young men make to pretty girls--thus far there was nothing that was not perfectly natural." "I say!" cried Saint-Arthur; "why, that's like Jericourt and----" "Pray let monsieur finish!" said Jericourt, who had become very attentive within a few seconds. "But, as I was saying, the pretty flower girl, who is virtuous and who, moreover, is in love with a handsome young fellow, did not listen to our dandy's suggestions, but received them very coldly. What does he do to triumph over the girl? He sends a man to order and pay for a very handsome bouquet, with a request to the flower girl to carry it herself to a lady whose address he gives her, informing her that that lady will have other orders for her. The girl falls into the snare--for you will guess that she was sent to the gallant himself, who had told his concierge to allow the flower girl to go up to his room." "Why, this is strange, it resembles----" "Hold your tongue, Frefred! this story interests me immensely." Jericourt did not utter a word, but he had become very pale. Roncherolle continued his narrative, with his eyes still fastened upon him.