"'’Tis here that Rose doth dwell!'"
or:
| "'When one knows how to love and please, |
| What other blessing doth he lack?'" |
And the young dressmakers never failed to clap their hands and demand an encore. One day, Madame Picotée had the bright idea of tossing him two sous, which he laughingly picked up and put in his pocket, saying: "This will buy me some rouge and rice powder."—Which remark maddened the lady of the beauty spot, who ran for her slop jar and would have emptied it on her neighbor, but for the presence of the concierge, who was sweeping the courtyard.
Meanwhile Frontin, who soon discovered that his master was enamored of the damsel of the entresol, told him all that happened in the house, and all the foolish freaks to which Monsieur Bistelle resorted in his endeavors to commend himself to Mademoiselle Georgette.
"What do you say? that ugly creature hopes to make a conquest of that pretty grisette?" cried Monsieur de Mardeille; "didn't he ever look at himself in the glass?"
"I don't know whether he knows how ugly he is," replied Frontin; "but I assure you, monsieur, that he flatters himself that he has made an impression on Mademoiselle Georgette; he declares that she smiles sweetly at him when he's at his window."
"Smiles! Why, it's at me that the girl smiles, not at him! It's impossible that it should be at him! The conceited ass! the monkey! for the fellow looks very much like a monkey, doesn't he, Frontin?"
"Yes, monsieur; and he makes gestures like one, too."
"What! do you mean to say that he presumes to do what monkeys do?"