"Paul, are you there? or have you gone out for a time?"
"I am there."
"Oh, very well! then will you have the kindness to tell me which of the characters are at present on the scene?"
"Wait a minute! I'll just look."
"What?" exclaimed Bijou, "do you mean to say you have to look before you can tell us?"
"Well, you do not imagine, I presume, that I know by heart all the insane things that each of you has been pleased to dictate to me."
"I know them all anyhow," and then, turning towards Jean de Blaye, she answered his question. "We have on the scene at present, Venus, the Poet, Thomas Vireloque, and the Opportunist, and we said yesterday that after the introduction of the Poet to Venus, we would let Madame de Staël come in."
"Very well, we will let her enter at once."
"Have you found anyone for Madame de Staël?" asked Rueille; "up to the present no one has wanted to act her part."
"No," said Bijou; "just now I asked Madame de Juzencourt again, but she refuses energetically; and if Bertrade refuses too—"