"Did he give his name?"
"Monsieur Cha--Chamoureau."
"Very well; show him in."
Chamoureau was in full dress; he had bought a new coat and trousers. The coat was much too small in the armholes; the trousers were uncomfortably tight around the waist and had straps under the feet; but our widower was not sorry to have a genteel figure and to conceal a part of his embonpoint. Anyhow, he could find nothing better at the ready-made clothes shop the day before. A snow-white cravat and waistcoat completed the agent"s resemblance to a bridegroom; he lacked only the white gloves, which were replaced by a pair of light yellow ones.
In this costume he had driven to Rue de Ponthieu in a cab, for he did not propose that his clothes should be marred by the slightest speck of mud.
"Madame de Sainte-Suzanne?" he said to the concierge with a self-a.s.sured air; and as he went up to the second floor by a handsome staircase, he said to himself:
"I must present myself with ease of manner; I must not be timid; women like men with plenty of self-possession. Now, as this lady herself invited me to call on her, it must be that she was pleased with me; consequently, that being so, I can afford to be enterprising; she will certainly forgive me. d.a.m.nation! this coat is infernally tight under the arms; the dealer a.s.sured me that it would be all right, and it fits me perfectly everywhere else. The waistband of the trousers rather takes my breath away, and when I sit down, they"re too tight; but I am much thinner; the straps suit me better; I have almost no stomach at all. How stupid it is to have a stomach at thirty-eight! I shall have to take white mustard seed; they tell me that that makes you thin or fat, just as you choose. Ah! this must be the door! My tie isn"t rumpled; good!"
Although he did his utmost to be self-possessed, Chamoureau was intensely agitated when he entered Madame de Sainte-Suzanne"s apartment.
Seeing an immense room, elegantly furnished, contributed not a little to increase his confusion, and as his feet sank into the soft carpet, he said to himself:
"I made no mistake; she"s a great lady--a person of the highest station.
The devil! I mustn"t be enterprising at the start; this is no grisette; I must proceed in due form."
Thelenie wore a sort of blouse of lilac plush, with a girdle about her shapely waist. With that neglige costume, she wore no hoops, and the soft, yielding fabric of the blouse seemed at times to be glued to her beautiful hips, as if to disclose their perfect symmetry. Thus it was easy to see that nature had favored her in every way, and she was a hundred times more seductive than in one of those gowns which, being worn over extravagantly large skirts, make a woman resemble a balloon.
The hoopskirt must surely have been invented by women with bad figures, for those who have shapely forms lose far more than they gain by them.
Chamoureau stood speechless with admiration before Thelenie; she seemed to him even lovelier than at the ball, and in his enthusiasm he bowed so low that he caused his coat to split in the back.
He drew himself up in haste, sorely perturbed by the sound, but afraid to put his hand behind him to ascertain what had happened to his coat.
Besides, he was obliged to answer the lady, who said to him:
"You are very good, monsieur, to remember my invitation. I was thinking that you had forgotten it."
"Oh! madame! forget to come to you! to seize an opportunity to see you once more! That would be like forgetting to be happy."
And Chamoureau, well pleased with his reply, ventured to explore the back of his coat with his right hand; but he had to cut short his exploration, for Thelenie seated herself on a couch and motioned to him to sit by her side.
"Won"t you sit here, monsieur?"
"With the greatest pleasure, madame, if it will not incommode you."
"But I ask you to."
Chamoureau placed his hat on a table, taking care not to turn his back, so that Thelenie might not see the accident which must, he knew, have happened to the back of his coat. Then he took his seat beside her on the couch, thinking what gallant speech he should make to her. Now, when a man tries to think what he shall say, he usually says nothing. But the beautiful brunette came to the a.s.sistance of the visitor who was at such a loss for language.
"Well, monsieur, how did you wind up the night before last? did you stay much longer at the ball?"
"At the Opera? Oh, no! madame, I didn"t stay long; what pleasure could I have had there when I could no longer see you? And as you forbade me to follow you, I didn"t follow you, despite my longing to do so; for I did long to, terribly!"
"But you joined your friends, I suppose."
"My friends--yes; first I found Freluchon, who was looking for me; I confess that I was not looking for him; I had no thought for anything but the delightful conversation I had just had with you, and the remembrance of your face."
"Well, you went to supper with those gentlemen. Was there a large party?"
"There were five men--Freluchon, Edmond Didier, and two friends of theirs; but there were only four ladies, for I didn"t take one; you had refused to sup with me, and what other woman could have taken your place? There were not two like you at the ball--I would lay my life on it! And when one has had the happiness of seeing you----"
"So each of those gentlemen took his mistress?"
"His mistress, if you choose. As for me, I don"t call that a mistress; if I had a mistress, I would devote all my thoughts to her, every moment of leisure that I could spare from my toilet-room--I mean my office; I am so confused, so happy with you, that I cannot think of even the most common words."
"Pull yourself together, monsieur; really, I don"t see what there is to confuse you."
"You do not see! Ah! madame, if you would but condescend to read in the depths of my heart you would see there the flame which----"
"But the supper! was it very lively? And that flower-maker, that young Amelia, Monsieur Edmond"s inamorata--is she as pretty as the portrait he drew of her?"
Chamoureau began to be conscious that the lovely brunette cut him short whenever he attempted to speak of his love for her. These interruptions annoyed him, and he put his left hand behind his back, saying to himself:
"Where in the devil did that split?"
"Well, monsieur, you don"t answer. I asked you if that little Amelia seemed to you as piquant as Monsieur Edmond described her?"
"Little Amelia? who is she, madame?"
"Why, Monsieur Edmond"s mistress; you know perfectly well, you told me it yourself at the ball. You are very absent-minded, aren"t you, monsieur?"
"Absent-minded!--why, that is natural enough when you talk of any other person than yourself; for I think of you, of you alone."
Thelenie made an impatient gesture and moved to the extreme end of the couch. But Chamoureau interpreted that pantomime as a proof of intense agitation on the part of the lovely brunette, who evidently feared to yield too quickly to the man who attracted her. Thereupon, determined to take advantage of that agitation, our amorous swain threw himself at the lady"s feet, crying:
"Ah! madame, I can no longer restrain----"
But a cracking sound infinitely more prolonged than the former one interrupted the declaration which the agent was on the point of making.
This time there was no possible doubt as to the locality of the tear; his trousers had followed the example of his coat, and a cool breeze blowing upon a spot ordinarily covered informed him that there was danger in store.
Our widower was stricken with consternation. Thelenie roared with laughter as she looked at him on his knees; and he, fearing that the noise occasioned by the accident might be interpreted in a way even more humiliating to him than the reality, made haste to say:
"My trousers have split, madame, that"s all."
"Mon Dieu! I had no doubt of that, monsieur."
"It"s the first time I ever wore them; they have straps under the feet, and they"re a little tight; that is why, when I stooped--you understand."
"Perfectly, monsieur; pray rise."
"I believe that the same thing has happened to the back of my coat; it"s the first time I have worn that, too. It is all Freluchon"s fault; he has a black coat and trousers of mine in his room, and he has gone off to Rouen without sending them back to me."
"These are trivial annoyances not worth a thought, monsieur. Rise, I beg; what on earth induced you to throw yourself at my feet like that?
Rise, monsieur, I insist."
Chamoureau decided to rise, putting one hand over the place where his trousers had torn. But he was covered with confusion by what had happened, and he did not know how to resume his declaration.