"Oh! that is the least of my troubles! I attach little importance to those trifles now. At our age, you see, my dear friend, coquetry serves no purpose, unless it be to make us ridiculous! When the time has come, it's no use to paint and bedeck ourselves--it doesn't take away either a wrinkle or a year!" "He has become painfully tiresome, has this man," thought Madame de Grangeville, as she put a phial of salts to her nose. After a moment, she rejoined with a nonchalant air: "Thank heaven! everybody hasn't deserted me; I have some friends who remember doubtless that I obliged them formerly, and one of them is giving me an allowance of five thousand francs at this moment." "The devil! that is handsome, that is very handsome! Is it a male or a female friend who treats you in such magnificent fashion?" "Mon Dieu! I have no idea! the person doesn't divulge his name; he prefers to remain anonymous, in order not to be thanked even. Isn't that a noble act?" "Superb! and I regret exceedingly my inability to be the author of it. But you must certainly be able to guess, despite the mystery with which this person surrounds himself." "No--that is to say, I have some suspicions, which I believe to be well founded." "Indeed! but it seems that you did not suspect me?" "Oh, no! not for one moment!" "That is very amiable on your part." "You see that I was right." "But you were not aware of my unfortunate plight." "What does that matter? as if you would ever have thought of me!" "That is an extraordinary reproach! It seems to me that I proved to you abundantly that I thought of you in the old days." "Yes, yes,--unfortunately.--Ah! if one could foresee what is going to happen, if one could read the future!" "True! there are lots of things that one would not do--that one bitterly regrets having done!" A long silence ensued. Madame de Grangeville broke it by exclaiming suddenly: "You could never guess whom I met in the country last summer--Monsieur le Comte de Brevanne!" "Really?" "Yes, at a party, in a wood, where there were a great many people. I saw him at a distance in the crowd; I saw that he was looking at me and that he recognized me." "Do you think so?" "Do I think so! It was evident enough, for his manner was very agitated. I too recognized him instantly; he has changed hardly at all, except that his hair is turning gray; the face is still the same; he is good-looking--yes, he is a very handsome man!" "Had you never discovered that before?" "What an unkind thing to say to me!" "Well! did you speak?" "No; I am inclined to think that he was strongly tempted to speak to me; he hovered about me in the wood, and he was on the point of speaking to me, I believe, when some people came up; they surrounded me, took me away, and I lost sight of him. He must have gone away, for I didn't see him again during the evening." "And that is all?" "Yes, all." "Well, madame, I too have seen Brevanne, and not very long ago."