Chartier. That’s it! I can see Loulou now: fair hair, blue eyes, very pretty hands. You made a charming couple, the two of you! Well—there you have a memory which shouldn’t be disagreeable, surely.
Lucien. Ah, mon ami, one never knows the end of adventures of that sort!
Chartier. The end? Why didn’t the thing end naturally?
Lucien. What do you mean by ending naturally?
Chartier. When you left the Latin Quarter, you made Loulou a handsome present? She took another lover? or, perhaps, she got married? To-day, if you met each other in the street, you wouldn’t recognise each other? That is what I call a natural ending.
Lucien. Yes; that is the way things happen with you, and with almost everybody. But not with me. I ask myself, What may not still come of it?
Lucien’s forebodings are prophetic. Soon after, Chartier is told by his sister Laure that a young girl (très jolie, très convenable) has called to see him. It turns out that the young girl visitor (très jolie, très convenable) is Lucienne. In other words, she is the visible and terrifying proof of the unlucky Lucien Briant’s conviction that he is not to be permitted, like other men, to bury under the flowers of sentimental memories the irregularities of his Latin Quarter days.
Still, Lucienne had no intention of troubling her father. She was trained to believe that she had no legitimate, no righteous claim on him. Poor Loulou was true to the rule of the game that, for her, had had lifelong seriousness. Even on her death-bed she has kept faithfully to the terms of the unequal bargain. She had told Lucienne that her father had behaved “generously,” that she has no further legitimate claim on him. But she remembers Chartier’s kindness of heart and recommends her daughter to apply to him for advice and recommendations helpful in the way of finding her honest employment. So that this is the reason why Lucienne has sought out Monsieur Chartier. She is now alone in the world—poor “Loulou’s” savings nearly exhausted. Can Monsieur Chartier, perhaps, amongst his friends, find her a situation as secretary or companion, where she may earn an honest livelihood?
Touched to the heart by Loulou’s good remembrance and confidence in him is Chartier, and at once interested in Lucienne’s case.
Chartier. Yes, yes, certainly—you did well, mademoiselle, to come to me! I shall at once make inquiries amongst all my acquaintances. We shall find you a charming post; I give you my promise, to set about it at once.