"O Jenny! Jenny!"
"You will find out, my dear Clara, that it is all true. In fact, what happy couples can you mention? Only those where the wives close their eyes to their husbands" infidelities. Oh! when we let them do whatever they choose, go in and out and run after other women, without ever calling them to account for their actions, then we are what they call good wives, and they deign to offer us an arm once a month."
"I see that Alfred"s inconstancy has soured you!"
"What do I care for Monsieur Alfred"s inconstancy? I tell you again, I listened to him only for the fun of it, and I never took his declarations of love seriously. However, I am very glad that I know--that I conceived the idea of----"
Here they lowered their voices once more; and as they had reached a very interesting point, and as Robineau was most desirous to learn what the idea was that had occurred to Madame de Gerville, he tilted his chair a little more in the hope of hearing. But the weight of his body overturned it, and before he could recover himself, he rolled at the feet of the two friends.
As they had paid no attention to their neighbor, they were not a little surprised when that gentleman fell almost on their laps. But Robineau rose hastily, stammered an apology and walked away, muttering:
"They polish their floors a great deal too much! It"s almost too slippery to stand up! I don"t understand why all the dancers don"t fall on top of one another. To be sure, they walk instead of dancing.--Curse that chair! I was just going to learn the idea of that pretty brunette--Madame Jenny de Gerville. I will remember the name, and I"ll drive Alfred crazy. Ah! it"s very amusing!"
Robineau returned to the ball-room and looked about for other groups of people conversing. He heard laughter near at hand, and found that it came from two ladies who were not dancing; there happened to be a vacant chair behind them and Robineau took possession of it.
"These ladies are laughing," he said to himself; "I"ll wager that they are making fun of some other women among the company. I mustn"t miss this! I didn"t have time to look at them, but I will scrutinize them when they turn.--Attention!"
"Oh! what a ridiculous creature that man must be, and how I would have liked to see him dancing with you! You must point him out to me when you see him."
"Oh, yes! never fear; he is easily recognizable. I can"t imagine where Monsieur de Marcey found him!"
"Good!" thought Robineau; "they are making fun of someone--I was sure of it."
And he moved nearer to them, taking care not to tilt his chair.
"Just imagine, my dear love, a short, fat, heavy, awkward man, with a big nose, stupid little eyes, lips that he presses together when he talks, and hair curled so tight that he looks like a negro!"
"Ha! ha! ha!"
"And with it all, such a pretentious manner! He asked me to dance--they were just forming for the first contra-dance; I accepted, and during the dance he tried to play the amiable, but he had nothing to say except the most commonplace things, all so flat and wornout that it made me very sorry for him!--When he found that I made no reply to those entertaining remarks, he took the liberty to squeeze my hand while we were dancing!--Ha! ha! ha!"
At that point, the lady who was speaking turned, and Robineau recognized the countess with whom he had danced the first contra-dance. The blood rushed to his face. Meanwhile, the lady, who instantly recognized the gentleman of whom she was speaking, with difficulty restrained an inclination to laugh, and gently touched her friend"s knee. But before the latter had time to turn, Robineau was already far away. He was beside himself with rage, and glared furiously about, muttering:
"Well, upon my word! that woman must be a great joker! I don"t know whether it was I she was talking about, but in any event, I hope she may find many of my kind!--But she"s too ugly to have any attention.--To say that I squeezed her hand! that is false! These ugly women are forever slandering us men; it"s because they are furious at not finding any lovers."
Having lost his desire to listen to conversations, Robineau bent his steps toward the card-room, making such a horrible grimace that Alfred, meeting him beside one of the tables, stopped him and said:
"Mon Dieu! what a face you are making, my dear Robineau! Have you been having hard luck?"
"I have lost three hundred francs!"
"That"s nothing; you will win them back." And Alfred walked away, while Robineau said to himself:
"He takes things easily! That"s nothing, he says! If I had lost three hundred francs, I should never get over it! But I am very sure not to lose any such sum, as I have only twenty-one francs fifty. I must risk that. I will try to win; but they say that it isn"t very prudent to play ecarte at these large parties. However, at Monsieur le Baron de Marcey"s there can"t be any but honest people. No matter; I am going to bet on the one who is winning--that"s the best thing to do.--Who is having the luck?" asked Robineau as he drew near the card-table.
Unluckily for him, the luck changed; in a very short time he lost his twenty-one francs. Thereupon, making every effort to conceal his ill-humor, he turned away from the table.
"Good-bye to the trip into the country and the dinner at the restaurant on Sunday!" he thought. "Fifine will have to dine at her aunt"s, and I will play the guitar. It was well worth while for me to put myself out, dress in my best clothes and hire a cab, to come to a grand party!--It is very amusing, isn"t it? Women who laugh at you; men who stare at you as if they would like to walk on you; gamblers who win your money without giving you time to see where you are! Fifine is right: one has much more fun at Madame Saqui"s or at the Funambules when they play _Le Fantome Arme_.--Let us take a look at the buffet. If I can"t put ices in my pocket, I can put some oranges and cakes."
Robineau went to the refreshment room; there were no oranges left, but there was an abundance of cakes. He stuffed his pockets with them while the servants brought refreshments, and he was about to make for the stairway when Edouard appeared in front of him. The young author stopped.
"Good evening, Monsieur Robineau," he said; "I haven"t seen you before--there are so many people here!"
"True; and look you, between ourselves, I don"t consider these enormous crushes very amusing; I confess that I have had enough of it, and I am going away."
"Already? Why, it"s only two o"clock. Oh! you must stay; Alfred wants us to take supper in his apartment after the party, and talk nonsense."
"Oh! I didn"t know. That makes a difference, if we are to have supper.
The devil! if I had known, I wouldn"t have eaten so much sweet stuff.
But no matter--I will stay."
"Let us walk about and look for pretty partners."
"I will gladly walk about; but as to dancing, I am done."
Robineau slapped his pockets softly, to flatten them, and followed Edouard, saying to himself:
"I am not sorry to be seen talking with an author; I will talk theatre with him, and people will think that he and I are working together on a play.--I will bet that you prefer the play to an evening party, eh, Monsieur Edouard?"
"That depends; there are pleasant parties and very tiresome plays."
"Oh! of course; but I mean to say that it is very pleasant to be an author.--I must tell you of a plot--I say a plot, but I have a dozen in my desk!--Oh! I have some astonishingly good ones!"
"I believe it."
"Plots for grand operas, opera-comiques, vaudevilles, melodramas. Oh! I do a little of everything; I have an inexhaustible imagination, and if I had time----"
"Yes, time is always what those people lack who produce nothing."
"That is so, isn"t it? But I will show them to you. What I should like more than anything would be to have free admission to the theatres.--Ah!
to be able to go behind the scenes, to see the actresses at close quarters, and the ballet-dancers, who make pirouettes, so they say, as they bid you good-evening! What a lot of conquests one might make!"
"Not so many as you think; you get accustomed to the wings, as you do to the auditorium, and you talk with a Turk or a Polish girl without noticing their costumes."
"Of course; habit--I understand; but to produce a play, to superintend the rehearsals and the performance."
"It is delightful when one succeeds; but even so, what vexations have to be undergone before that point is reached! Rehearsals where people are never prompt, where they talk instead of studying their parts, which makes it necessary to rehea.r.s.e forty times what they should have learned in fifteen; actors who want to make over their parts, managers who want to rewrite your plays, actresses who don"t like their costumes, claqueurs who want all your tickets, and last of all the public, that will have none of your play: such is often the result of six weeks of discomfort, annoyances and hard work!"
"He says all this to take away any inclination on my part to write plays," thought Robineau. "All authors are like that; they try to disgust beginners. I won"t show him my plots; he would steal my ideas, and then say they were his own.--You are rather inclined to look at the dark side of things now, Monsieur Edouard," he said aloud, "because you are still sore from your failure."
"Oh! I a.s.sure you that I have forgotten all about it."
"Bah! nonsense! For my part, if I should be hissed, I think that I should be in a horrible humor.--By the way, have you seen your little sempstress again? But I suppose that she is already replaced, is she not?"
"Faith, no! I am beginning to be tired of these _bonnes fortunes_, in which, as Larochefoucauld says, there is everything except love. I think that I should prefer a little love and less pleasure."
"That is like me, I am for sentiment, for what is called pure sentiment.
I have adored all the women I ever knew, even my _figurante_ at the Porte-Saint-Martin; and on their side, they have all treated me with peculiar favor; I am their spoiled child."