"She! the pretty flower girl a hussy! Nonsense! It isn't true; I don't believe it! it's all talk!" Georget was impressed by the assurance with which his friend contradicted him, and in the depths of his heart, he was conscious of a thrill of the keenest pleasure; then it was his turn to embrace Chicotin for what he had said; but he simply pressed his hand hard, as he muttered: "You don't believe that of her. Ah, I was like you, I would not believe it; but if, in your presence, she had refused to deny such statements, you would be forced to believe! Listen, listen!" And Georget gave his friend an exact account of what had happened the last time that he was on Boulevard du Chateau d'Eau. Chicotin listened, shaking his head from time to time like a person who still doubts what he hears, and when his friend had ceased to speak, he cried: "What does all that prove? That little squint-eyed villain,--and I'll smash him one of these days,--says a lot of nasty things about a girl who won't have anything to do with him! If he blackguards like that all the women who send him about his business, he will have his hands full." "But that Jericourt, that fashionable young man,--alas! he is not ugly, and you know very well that he made love to Violette!" "Well, what then? He wasn't there, was he? He didn't say anything, confirm anything?" "But Violette! Violette! When the little man told her that he had seen her go into his neighbor's room and come out rumpled and excited, she didn't say to him: 'You are a liar!'--If it hadn't been true, do you think that she wouldn't have contradicted that evil-tongued fellow and confounded him?" "Oh, bless my soul! I don't know! You should ask her to explain it all to you." "Ask her to explain--so that she could lie some more to me! Oh! I didn't need any explanation. Besides, she saw my grief, my despair, and she let me go away, she didn't say a word to justify herself. Come, Chicotin, do you still believe her innocent now?" "Bless me! yes." "Yes? Ah! if I could only think like you! I have been so unhappy since I have been unable to say everywhere that I love her! She is pale, she is sad, she is changed, and how can I find out what causes her sadness?" "Wait! wait! I see someone yonder who can tell us better than anybody else the truth of the matter. Look, do you see that young man crossing the boulevard?" "Monsieur Jericourt! It is he! Let me go, Chicotin, I am going to speak to him." "Not much! What will you say to him, I should like to know?" "I don't know; but I will force him to tell me if he is Violette's lover."