"Madame, I judged you ill, that is true. I did treat your sister Aimée somewhat inconsiderately, and you have repaired my neglect, my fault. We men are drawn on by the current of business and pleasure, and are sometimes at fault when we do not mean to be. Present my compliments to your sister. Here is the little petticoat that became you so well!"
"But why am I mixed up in this affair, madame, I who never seduced any of your sisters?"
"You, monsieur," replied Georgette, with a smile—"I took you at first for an honorable, loyal man, whose arm I could accept without fear, for I was alone in Paris. I did not then know the addresses of these gentlemen, which my sisters succeeded in obtaining for me later. I wanted to go to the play and to the fashionable promenades, hoping to discover, to meet there, the persons I was absolutely determined to find."
"I understand; you used me as an escort."
"Something like it, monsieur. As for your love, that didn't frighten me. When I learned that you had lied to me, that you were married, as it was a matter of perfect indifference to me, I might have forgiven you; but you attempted to take most unbecoming liberties with me! So then, monsieur, I left you without ceremony, abandoning in your hands a little petticoat—which you have brought to me, I hope?"
"Yes, madame, here it is."
And Dupont, hanging his head rather sheepishly, produced his little parcel and handed it to Georgette. She took it and gave it to her husband; then she rose, and, with a graceful courtesy to the three men who had been in love with her, said:
"Now that I am rehabilitated in your eyes, messieurs, it remains for me only to wish you whatever may be most agreeable to you."
And, after bowing once more, Georgette took her husband's arm and walked away with him.
Her three ex-lovers looked after her, and the viscount exclaimed: