"Chamoureau—Sigismond Chamoureau."
"Well, my dear Monsieur Sigismond Chamoureau, I will tell you that I was once, but that I have not been for a long time."
The agent's face brightened, and he cried:
"As you no longer are, it's just as if you had never been."
"It isn't altogether the same thing, but I congratulate you on being so philosophical."
"In that case, monsieur, you don't bear me a grudge for being in love with Madame Sainte-Suzanne, and I need no longer look upon you as a rival?"
"I, bear you a grudge! oh! not the least in the world! I should have had my hands very full if I had been the rival of all those whom that lady's fine eyes have bewitched!"
"She has fine eyes, hasn't she?"
"Magnificent; and they have made many victims!"
"And will make many more; she is in all the bloom of her beauty!"