"I want you to go to Mademoiselle Georgette's."
"The pretty neighbor's?"
"Yes; you will present yourself in my name, and most politely. You will say to her that, as I have heard that she is a shirtmaker and as I have some very fine shirts to be made up—— That isn't true; I don't need any, but they are always useful and I can safely order a dozen.—You will say to her then, that, as I have some work for her, I shall be much obliged if she will take the trouble to come to my rooms. You understand: in this way, I don't compromise myself, and I shall be able to talk to her much more freely than in her apartment."
"Yes, monsieur, yes; I will go and do your errand."
"Be perfectly courteous and respectful; that flatters these little girls."
"Yes, monsieur; and you don't want me to take her a bouquet too?"
"Nonsense! what good do bouquets do? There's nothing so commonplace! Do you suppose that I intend to copy Monsieur Bistelle? No, no, never a bouquet; I don't need that sort of thing to succeed. Go, Frontin; if the young shirtmaker asks you at what time I can receive her, say that she is entirely at liberty to choose the hour that is most convenient to her, and that she will always be welcome. I think that's rather pretty, eh? That's worth more than a bouquet."
Frontin departed, to perform the mission with which his master had intrusted him. But the bouquet sent to Georgette by Bistelle had been seen by the whole house. Instantly, as if he had lighted a train of powder, all the aspirants to the girl's favor had determined that they must not lag behind, and that the moment had come to try to make her acquaintance.
The young literary man who dabbled in poetry purchased a small bunch of violets for two sous—we are all gallant according to our means;—but he wrapped it in a sheet of note paper, whereon he had written this quatrain:
| "Je vous ai vue, agissant à la pompe; |
| En vous tout est charmant, tout est vrai, rien ne trompe; |
| Vous déployez alors des mouvements si doux, |
| Que l'on se damnerait pour pomper avec vous!"[D] |