While we talked, we had returned to the Guillardin party, of which I was now a duly accredited member. But as a quadrille was beginning just as we entered the ballroom, Madame Dauberny seated herself by the door, and I stood beside her, delighted to be able to continue my conversation with the amiable Frédérique; for to my mind she was extremely amiable, and if I had not been in love with her friend Armantine—— But it is so pleasant to be in love, even when it amounts to nothing, and vastly more so when it may amount to something. I was still in the dark as to how it would be with my new passion; but one is always at liberty to hope.
"I am under great obligations to you, madame, for what you have done for me to-night."
"Mon Dieu! you have already expressed your gratitude, monsieur! I trust that I shall hear no more of it."
"You know now, madame, that I have sometimes met Monsieur Sordeville in society; but that is not enough for me. I should be glad to make myself known to you more fully; and if you will allow me to call and pay my respects to you——"
Madame Dauberny looked at me a moment with a strange expression; I would have liked to know what was passing through her mind; but she soon replied, with her deliberate air:
"No, monsieur, no; I will not allow you to call on me; indeed, why should you do so?"
"Why, to have the pleasure of being with you, madame; and because I desire to make myself better known to you; and——"
"No; it's unnecessary, I tell you. I am entirely convinced, monsieur, of your good faith in all that you have told me; what more can you desire?"
"Nothing in that direction. But when one has once had the pleasure of being your escort, it is painful, madame, to think of the possibility of never seeing you again."
"Never! That is a word that ought to be stricken from the dictionary, monsieur, don't you think?"