“Certainly; I am invited to the supper, with five or six agreeable roués, intimate friends of Grandmaison. As he is naturally a little stupid, when he has told a woman that he’d like—you understand—he can’t think of anything else to say to her to amuse her; and as he desires to be sparing of his pleasures, because he’s not so robust as you and I are, he reserves his ardor for the night; he always invites a number of friends to supper, in order to put his charmer in the right mood.”
“A most excellent device, and very pleasant for his guests!”
“You must understand that we always get something out of it. These women, when they have a large stock of susceptibility, are never satisfied with Grandmaison, who’s an invalid!”
“I understand: you are his friend and deputy.”
“I am whatever anyone wants me to be! Oh! we have great sport at these little supper parties! we laugh like lunatics! The food is delicious and the wines exquisite! no constraint, no ceremony; we joke and sing and drink; and the jests, the puns, the remarks with a double meaning, the spicy anecdotes, the smutty couplets! There’s a rolling fire of them; everybody talks at once, and nobody hears what the others say; it’s delicious!”
“You make me regret that I am not one of you.”
“Would you like to be, my dear fellow? Parbleu! if you would, I will venture to introduce you.”
“Really! could you do it?”
“I can do anything I choose! you know very well that everything succeeds that I undertake.”
“I had forgotten that. But this Monsieur de Grandmaison doesn’t know me.”