"See, there are ten places, and only nine of us," observed one of the young men.
"True," replied Freluchon, "I ordered supper for ten because I thought that Chamoureau would bring a lady."
"That's so!" cried Edmond; "I hadn't noticed. How's this, my dear Chamoureau, didn't you make a little acquaintance at the ball? What does this mean? how, then, did you pass the time?"
Chamoureau drank a glass of chablis and replied with a triumphant smile:
"I beg pardon, messieurs, I beg pardon! if I haven't brought a lady to supper, that doesn't prove by any means that I am not so highly favored as you are by—by Cupid!"
"The deuce! do you mean it, Chamoureau?" cried Freluchon; "you've been favored by Cupid! Come, tell us about it! When I found you in the foyer, looking, as if stupefied, at the remains of a stick of candy, I supposed that your presents had been repulsed with loss."
"Oh! not by any means! on the contrary my candy was not once repulsed; in fact, I have given away a great deal of it during the night!"
"Really! then you have had a number of intrigues."
"I have had nothing else all night long; I left one woman to take another, and vice versa!"
"What a Lovelace!"