"That's no answer; I might be charming, and still be stupid. However, I don't care; as long as I please you, and you love me a little—I mean much; I want to be loved much—that's all I ask."
She said all this with an abandon, a vivacity, which proved, at all events, that she did not stop to pick her words.
We arrived at the restaurant; I need not say that I had taken my conquest to an establishment where there were cosily furnished private dining-rooms. I also think it needless to add that I began by dismissing the waiter, who attempted to insist upon serving us at once, by telling him that I would prepare my order and ring for him when we wanted to dine. I was very glad to have an interview with Mademoiselle Rosette, uninterrupted by the constant going and coming of a waiter.
At last we were left alone. I was able to converse at my ease with my pretty workgirl, to whom our conversation was equally agreeable and who sustained her part excellently. I was enchanted with Mademoiselle Rosette! Long live the women who do not make a thousand and one grimaces before coming to what they have never intended to refuse! Ah! if only one could believe that they did have that intention, and yielded to the power of sentiment, to the ascendency of our passion alone! But it is impossible to believe that. Whenever a woman agrees to go to a private dining-room with a man, it means that she does not propose to be severe.
In due course, we dined; we had the most voracious appetites. We were as gay as larks; embarrassment and reserve had vanished. There is nothing superior to a little tender conversation for putting us in a good humor at once, and putting to flight that indefinable constraint which takes wing only when a woman has ceased to keep us at any distance.
Rosette and I were like people who had known each other for six months. She ate like an ogre and drank like a porter. She was a model grisette! a table companion of the sort that puts you on your mettle and excites you! Don't talk to me of the women who never have any appetite, who barely nibble at their food, and leave untouched all that you put on their plate. They call everything bad, and end by preventing you from eating. What depressing companions! With them, you spend quite as much—yes, more; for you never know what to order to stir them up, and you always dine wretchedly.
But with Rosette how different it was! how we made the oysters disappear, and the soup, and the beef-steak; the fish and game and vegetables and sweetmeats and dessert! She ate the last dish with as much gusto as the first. Oh! fascinating girl, I admired thee! I revered thee! I would have erected a column to thee, had I been Lucullus! But thou wert as well pleased with a charlotte russe! And thou wert right: columns remain, but charlotte russes pass away; and that was what we wanted.
We drank chablis, pomard, madeira, and came at last to champagne. Rosette confessed that she adored that wine; as for the others, I was pleased to see that she had a friendly feeling for them as well. She laughingly emptied her glass, saying:
"I'd have you know that I never get tipsy."
A moment later, she cried: