Our lover seized the letter and hurriedly ran his eye over it.
"MONSIEUR LE VICOMTE:
"I have gone away; do not look for me. I carry with me your pocketbook and its contents; I need only that, so I leave you all the rest. I leave you, in addition, my little white petticoat, which seemed to please you immensely; but some day I shall ask you to return it to me; for I expect to see you again, in order to explain my conduct; then, perhaps, you will consider that it was perfectly natural, rather than blamable."
The viscount stood for some time, lost in amazement, gazing alternately at the letter and the petticoat; but suddenly he burst into a laugh, saying to himself:
"Gad! she's a most amusing little hussy! And it has been a racy adventure. I will regale my friends with it when I give them that dinner, the day after to-morrow."
XXIII
THE GENTLEMEN WITH THE THREE PETTICOATS
Toward the close of the month of September following, one fine day, about two o'clock in the afternoon, a gentleman was walking back and forth along the path in front of the monkey house at the Jardin des Plantes.
This gentleman was no other than our old acquaintance Monsieur Dupont, of whom we lost sight some time ago. We left him in the private dining-room, where he had dined with Georgette, who quitted him abruptly because he thought that he could easily triumph over a girl who had consented to dine with him alone at a restaurant; so that his bonne fortune was limited to the possession of a little striped petticoat which had been left in his hands.
Dupont had returned to his wife at Brives-la-Gaillarde. He had carried the little petticoat with him, but had been careful not to show it to his wife, who might have thought it strange that her husband should bring nothing back from Paris save a second-hand petticoat. However, Dupont had been much less inclined to sleep since his return; that was something in favor of the capital. From time to time, when he was alone, he took the grisette's little petticoat from its hiding place and gazed fondly at it, sighing as he remembered her who had worn it and to whom it was so becoming. On those days, Dupont was even less sleepy than usual, and his wife would say to him:
"My dear, it was an excellent idea for you to pass a few weeks in Paris; you came back much more wide awake; it did you good."