"Was that man ever your lover?"
"Yes, unfortunately."
"Because at that time I was adored, idolized by an extremely rich man, who would certainly have married me, if I had been true to him, or if he had not discovered that I was deceiving him."
"It would seem that you weren't so shrewd in those days as you are now; you wouldn't allow yourself to be caught to-day!"
"Mon Dieu! who can tell what may happen? the most adroit are taken by surprise sometimes. But let us dine at once. I can hardly wait for this evening, to find out if this Chamoureau has told me the truth. Twenty-two thousand five hundred francs a year—that's not bad."
"I should say so! I haven't even the odd hundreds!"
"With the ten thousand francs I have, it would make a fortune; I could go everywhere, be received everywhere!"
"You would become a very comme il faut person!"
The two friends dined in haste. Thélénie ate little; she was too preoccupied to have any appetite.