"Well, you're mighty lucky in your mistakes; that's sure. This cane must have cost a lot of money."
"Oh! I have seen much finer ones than this, in the old days. What the devil are you looking for on the floor and on the furniture, Madame Louchard?"
"Dame! I'm looking to see if you haven't brought something else home, by mistake."
Cherami instantly sat up in bed, crying:
"Thunder of Jupiter! Widow Louchard, what do you take me for, I'd like to know? Do you think I'm a thief, a pickpocket? I had a hat and a cane, and on leaving a ball I took a hat and a cane. They're not the ones that belong to me; I made a mistake, I was in error, and that may happen to anybody—errare humanum est, do you understand? No, you don't understand; never mind. But to carry away anything to which I have no right—fie! for shame!—To prove that I wouldn't do such a thing—I found a glove, and I returned it. Let me tell you, madame, that a man may be without money, have debts, borrow and not pay, and even play cards on his word—for if I had lost last night, I shouldn't have been able to pay on the spot; but all those things don't prevent one's being an honest man."
"Mon Dieu! Monsieur Cherami, I don't say they do; you go off all of a sudden, like a spitfire!"
"Last night, I confess, I had dined very well. I wasn't drunk; I never get drunk; I was simply a little confused, which fully explains all these mistakes; and now, I feel as if I could take something."
"Would you like to have me make you a nice onion soup, while you're getting up? There's nothing that'll set you up better, the day after a spree."
"Onion soup! I do not disdain that dish; but I am tempted to look higher, and I believe that a good chicken—— But what's all that noise? I should say that a carriage was stopping in front of the hôtel! Go and look, my dear hostess."
Madame Louchard went to the window.