"A bath keeper's daughter!" exclaimed Valentine, with a disdainful air. "Is it possible that the son of the Marquis de Marvejols forgets himself to such a degree as to address his sighs to one so far beneath him!"
"But if the little one is a model of beauty, as they say," murmured the undersized clerk, "that causes much to be overlooked!"
"You know a bath keeper's daughter, Miretta; you go to see her sometimes, do you not? Can it be the same one?"
"No, mademoiselle; the one I know is very good-looking too, but she lives on Rue Saint-Jacques; she lost her mother long ago."
"I know whom you mean!" cried Bahuchet; "you mean Ambroisine, whom they call La Belle Baigneuse. Ah! she's a very handsome girl—tall and well built! She is Master Hugonnet's daughter, whose baths are very popular.—Oh! I know her; I know all Paris, I do! But she isn't the one in question, for my friend Plumard—his name ought to be Plumé [plucked], for before long he will not have three hairs on his scalp—— But, no matter; Plumard told me about the daughter of his neighbor, the bath keeper on Rue Dauphine. His name is Landry; he is an old soldier, who will not look on it as a joke if he learns that a gallant is making love to his daughter, whatever the gallant's name and rank may be!"
"And—was it long ago, monsieur, that you had this conversation at your friend's window on Rue Dauphine?"
"About six weeks, mademoiselle."
"Have you seen your friend again since? Has he told you anything more concerning Monsieur Léodgard de Marvejols's love affairs?"
"I have seen Plumard very often since. We sometimes dine together at the cook shop. A few days, or rather a few nights ago, I escorted my comrade home; it was very late, almost midnight; we had been singing and playing cards and drinking a long, long while, and Plumard, who is not over brave, was afraid to go home alone. He was in dread of falling in with Giovanni the robber—the famous Italian brigand whom our archers, our arquebusiers, our watch, in fact, all our soldiery, have not succeeded in catching. They are not shrewd. To secure that villain's arrest, I shall have to take a hand in it. But I will show them how to catch him. I know how they must go to work to do it, and——"
"You will have Giovanni arrested?" cried Miretta, whose face had turned deathly pale.