Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/353

this evening with a lady; I was to meet her at a friend’s house, whence I should, perhaps, have taken her home to mine, if it were nearer than her own, and even if it were not. At this house there was a party. At parties one must wear a dress-coat. I have no dress-coat, my tailor was to bring me one; he does not do so; I do not go to the party; I do not meet the lady who is, perhaps, met by someone else; I do not see her home either to my place or hers, and she is, perhaps, seen home by another. So, as I told you, I have lost an opportunity of happiness and pleasure; hence I am vexed; hence I look so, and quite naturally.”

“Very good,” said his friend, “with one foot just out of one hell, you want to put the other foot in another; but, my dear fellow, when I met you you seemed to be waiting for some one.”

“So I was.”

“But,” continued the other, “we are in the neighborhood in which your ex-mistress is living; what is there to prove that you were not waiting for her?”

“Although separated from her, special reasons oblige me to live in this neighborhood; but, although neighbors, we are as distant as if she were at one pole and I at the other. Besides, at this particular moment, my ex-mistress is seated at her fireside taking lessons in French grammar from Vicomte Paul, who wishes to bring her back to the paths of virtue by the road of orthography. Good heavens, how he will spoil her! However, that regards himself, now that he is editor-in-chief of her happiness. You see, therefore, that your reflections are absurd, and that, instead of following up the half-effaced traces of my old Jove, I am on the track of my new one, who is already to some extent my neighbor, and will become yet more so; for I am willing to take all the necessary steps, and if she will take the rest, we shall not be long in coming to an understanding.”