“But if it’s an Englishman——”
“A creditor! Mon Dieu! you know well enough what you must say to them, for you are used to receiving those fellows.”
“Oh yes, madame, I will get around him.”
XVII
AN OLD FRIEND
The lady’s maid went to the door. Madame de Grangeville took her place anew before her dressing-table, and arranged her cap and her hair. To try to attract, to appear young, was in her a desire so identified with her nature, that she would go to look at herself in her mirror before allowing a chimney sweep to enter her room.
But no one appeared; she heard only the sound of voices in the reception room. It lasted some time, and Madame de Grangeville, who divined what was happening, threw herself back in her chair and began to look over the newspaper as if what were going on in her reception room did not concern her.
After some little time the outer door closed and Mademoiselle Lizida reappeared, crying:
“Heavens! how unendurable those people are getting to be! They have no manners at all; I thought that it would never end.”
“Who was it?”
“Mon Dieu! it was that idiot of a grocer opposite, who has taken it into his head to come himself now.”