Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/160

“I should like you to have lived at Moscow or the islands of the Sound, in order to have had the pleasure of being your escort the longer.”

“That would be rather far,” said Laure, affectedly.

“We could have gone by way of the Boulevards, madame,” said Rodolphe. “Allow me to kiss your hand in the shape of your cheek,” he added, kissing his companion on the lips before Laure could make any resistance.

“Oh! sir,” she exclaimed, “you go too fast.”

“It is to reach my destination the sooner,” said Rodolphe. “In love, the first stages should be ridden at a gallop.”

“What a funny fellow,” thought the milliner, as she entered her dwelling.

“A pretty girl,” said Rodolphe, as he walked away.

Returning home, he went to bed at once, and had the most delightful dreams. He saw himself at balls, theatres, and public promenades with Mademoiselle Laure on his arm, clad in dresses more magnificent than those of the girl with the ass’s skin of the fairy tale.

The next morning at eleven o’clock, according to habit, Rodolphe got up. His first thought was for Mademoiselle Laure.

“She is a very well mannered woman,” he murmured; “I feel sure that she was brought up at Saint Denis. 1 shall at length realize the happiness of having a mistress who is not pitted with the small-pox. Decidedly I will make sacrifices for her. I will go and draw my screw at ‘The Scarf of Iris.’ I will buy some gloves; and I will take Laure to dinner at a restaurant where table-napkins are in use. My coat is not up to much,” said he, as he dressed himself; “but, bah! black is good wear.”

And he went out to go to the office of “The Scarf of Iris.”