"Who isn't rich to-day? unless he's as stupid as a pot!"
"True; your reflection is very clever. And you are free?"
"As free as air!"
"And you will receive me?"
"You shall have the entrée every day. Come this way; there's another buffet, where they sell candy."
Chamoureau submitted to be led to the buffet in the corridor on the second floor; he could refuse nothing to a woman who declared that she had come to the Opéra on his account.
The Norman selected a stick of the same size as those selected by the pink domino and the shepherdess; she drank a glass of gooseberry wine, then took the Spaniard's arm again, saying:
"Mon Dieu! how wise you were to take off your nose! you are a hundred per cent. better looking!"
"But you, charming peasant, won't you take off your mask? You must divine my longing to gaze upon your features."
"It's not necessary, you know me already."