"What! you don't know it?"
"I have never been able to read the future (l'avenir), and I was not aware that it had a village."
"It's in Romainville Forest, a little this side, on high land from which you get a fine view. There have been a lot of houses built there, almost all alike; small, but very neat and prettily decorated, each with its little garden. As they don't cost much, and you can pay on very easy terms, why, the village of L'Avenir sprang up all at once, as if by magic."
"Pardieu! I'll go and buy a house there—as soon as I'm in funds. Ah! mesdemoiselles, I have hunted everywhere for you! If you knew all that I have done to find you!"
"Us, monsieur? Why did you want to find us?"
"To ask you to go to the play and to supper."
"Ah! what a fine idea! But perhaps we wouldn't have accepted?"
"That perhaps relieves my mind. There was nothing improper in my suggestion."
"Monsieur certainly has too gentlemanly an air for anybody to distrust him."
"Damnation!" said Cherami to himself; "what a pity that I haven't a sou! I'll bet they would accept now."