“You mustn’t take it so hard, Jean,” said Diane, drying her eyes. “After all, I am only one woman out of millions and millions of them, and you are so nice and so good and act and sing so well, I am sure you could marry some girl much higher up in the profession than I am. And then, everybody has a thorn in the heart. Come, let us start home. The Marquis does not need to dog my steps now.”
The Grandins had already left, and Diane walked home between François, who joined them outside, and Jean. François called her Madame la Marquise, and made all sorts of good-natured fun of her. Jean was glum and silent.
When the two men parted with Diane on the landing and went up to their garret, their beds separated only with a canvas curtain, François slapped Jean on the back, and said:
“Never mind, old man! It’s easy enough to forget a woman.”
Jean turned on François a look of contempt.
Jean undressed quickly and laid down upon his hard bed, but not to sleep. He would not give François a chance to gibe at him next day about a sleepless night, and so lay rigidly still in the blackness of the long, low-ceiled garret.
He knew when it was one o’clock by the sound across the street of the closing of the Hotel Metropole, the banging of shutters, and the barring of gates. By some strange psychic intimation he knew that François, although perfectly quiet, was as wide awake as he. Presently, he heard strange sounds from the other side of the canvas partition, something like suppressed sobs and groans. Jean, thinking François was ill, drew aside a corner of the canvas at the end. François was huddled in a heap on the floor, clasping his knees and rocking back and forth, while strangled sobs and smothered cries burst from him. Jean, abashed, returned to his own bed.
The next morning, a bouquet of roses and a little note arrived from the Marquis. This gave unalloyed happiness to two persons—Diane and Grandin.
“A bouquet for a lady in my company from a marquis!” cried Grandin. “It’s enough to make a man mad with joy!”
Before breakfast Diane sallied forth, and came back bringing a book on etiquette which she immediately proceeded to study diligently.