Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/159

One Saturday evening, at a time when he had not yet gone into housekeeping with Mademoislle Mimi, who will shortly make her appearance, Rodolphe made the acquaintance at the table d’hôte he frequented of a ladies’ wardrobe-keeper, named Mademoiselle Laure. Having learned that he was editor of “The Scarf of Iris” and of “The Beaver,” two fashion papers, the milliner, in the hope of getting her goods puffed, commenced a series of significant provocations. To these provocations Rodolphe replied by a pyrotechnical display of madrigals, sufficient to make Benserade, Voiture, and all other dealers in the fireworks of gallantry jealous; and at the end of the dinner, Mademoiselle Laure, having learned that he was a poet, gave him clearly to understand that she was not indisposed to accept him as her Petrarch. She even, without circumlocution, made an appointment with him for the next day.

“By Jove,” said Rodolphe to himself as he saw Mademoiselle Laure home, “this is certainly a very amiable young person. She seems to me to have good grammar and a tolerably extensive wardrobe. I am quite disposed to make her happy.”

On reaching the door of her house, Mademoiselle Laure relinquished Rodolphe’s arm, thanking him for the trouble he had taken in accompanying her to such a remote locality.

“Oh! madame,” replied Rodolphe, bowing to the ground,