“Ha! ha!” laughed the facetious Chambourdin, tapping Monsieur Mangeot on the shoulder, “that’s rather a dainty bit still, eh? What do we think of it, friend Mangeot?”
“I think that it’s almost six o’clock, and that I am starving to death!”
“As the baroness has arrived, dinner will probably be served.”
“Why, no—look—there’s Glumeau running away now! Do you see how he slinks off? Where in the devil can he be going?”
“We must keep him here.”
But the gentlemen were too late that time; Monsieur Glumeau finally succeeded in leaving the salon; he would have left one of his coat tails there rather than not go.
Amid all the reflections and comments to which Madame de Grangeville’s entrance had given rise, a single person had said not a word—that person was Monsieur de Merval. However, he had scrutinized the baroness no less closely, perhaps even more closely, than the others had done, and his expression, as he looked at her, seemed to indicate that it was not the first time that he had seen her; being a man of the world, however, he was able to conceal his sensations.
As for her who was at that moment the cynosure of every eye, she was not embarrassed for an instant by all the glances that were bent upon her; smiling at one and all most graciously, acknowledging Madame Glumeau’s curtsies, addressing a pleasant word to Mademoiselle Eolinde, she displayed as much ease of manner as if she were in her own house until the moment that her eyes met Monsieur de Merval’s. Then a surprised expression, a faint suggestion of dismay, blended with the smile that played constantly about her lips; but, like Monsieur de Merval, she speedily recovered her self-possession; her emotion was only momentary.
Young Astianax reappeared in other clothes and was greeted with cheers by Chambourdin and Dufournelle, who told him that all the ladies had looked at his trousers.
The little fellow lost no time in presenting his respects to the Baronne de Grangeville, to whom he delivered a complimentary address that lasted a long time, while Monsieur Mangeot persisted in whispering to his neighbors: