"Do you know her?"
"Oh! as one knows a great many of the women one meets at all the balls at the Casino, at all the first performances—in short, at all the functions to which one can gain admission by paying for it."
"Is she married?"
"Married? the deuce! never!—As if those creatures ever married! She's a kept woman, that's the whole story."
"Ah! she's a kept woman. At all events, she is kept handsomely. She had a magnificent diamond necklace and brooch. For they were diamonds, weren't they, monsieur?"
"They were—or, at all events, they looked like it; but they may have been false. Nowadays, they make false gems that resemble real ones so closely that it's very hard to distinguish them. They're quite as handsome; indeed, they are often more effective, on account of the way they're mounted."
"False diamonds! how horrible! I should never be willing to wear anything false, myself!"
Monsieur de Mardeille looked at his watch, then rose, and said:
"How the time flies with you, charming Georgette! But I have some business at my broker's, and I have only just time to go there. So, au revoir, my lovely neighbor! You are not angry any longer, are you?"
"No, monsieur, no; I have entirely forgotten the past."