"Ah, poor Marguerite!" said Gaston, sitting down to the piano and
playing a waltz. "I hadn't a notion of it, but I did notice she hasn't
been looking so gay lately."
"Hush," said Prudence, listening. Gaston stopped.
"She is calling me, I think."
We listened. A voice was calling, "Prudence!"
"Come, now, you must go," said Mme. Duvernoy.
"Ah, that is your idea of hospitality," said Gaston, laughing; "we won't
go till we please."
"Why should we go?"
"I am going over to Marguerite's."
"We will wait here."
"You can't."
"Then we will go with you."
"That still less."
"I know Marguerite," said Gaston; "I can very well pay her a call."
"But Armand doesn't know her."
"I will introduce him."
"Impossible."
We again heard Marguerite's voice calling to Prudence, who rushed to her
dressing-room window. I followed with Gaston as she opened the window.
We hid ourselves so as not to be seen from outside.
"I have been calling you for ten minutes," said Marguerite from her
window, in almost an imperious tone of voice.
"What do you want?"
"I want you to come over at once."
"Why?"
"Because the Comte de N. is still here, and he is boring me to death."
"I can't now."
"What is hindering you?"
"There are two young fellows here who won't go."
"Tell them that you must go out."
"I have told them."
"Well, then, leave them in the house. They will soon go when they see
you have gone."
"They will turn everything upside down."
"But what do they want?"
"They want to see you."
"What are they called?"
"You know one, M. Gaston R."
"Ah, yes, I know him. And the other?"
"M. Armand Duval; and you don't know him."
"No, but bring them along. Anything is better than the count. I expect
you. Come at once."
Marguerite closed her window and Prudence hers. Marguerite, who had
remembered my face for a moment, did not remember my name. I would
rather have been remembered to my disadvantage than thus forgotten.
"I knew," said Gaston, "that she would be delighted to see us."
"Delighted isn't the word," replied Prudence, as she put on her hat and
shawl. "She will see you in order to get rid of the count. Try to be
more agreeable than he is, or (I know Marguerite) she will put it all
down to me."