"In short, I meant to say that you didn't look like a rake."
"It is certain that I should find it rather difficult to play that part now.—But this extravagant eulogy of my person did not make your friend disposed to see me?"
"No; she said that she didn't need company, that she preferred to think all by herself."
"In that case, my boy, we will let her alone; we must never annoy anybody, especially the sick."
Monsieur de Roncherolle entered his room, and Chicotin returned to the boulevard, saying to himself:
"Shall I go to Nogent and tell Georget all that has happened? If I do, he won't be able to think badly of Violette any more. On the other hand, if I tell him that she's sick, he'll worry and torment himself; he'll want to come back to Paris and perhaps that will displease his employer. I think that I'd better wait until Violette is well before I go to see Georget."
But the next day, the young flower girl, very far from being well, had a higher fever and was slightly delirious; she hardly recognized Chicotin when he came to see her. He said to the concierge, when she approached with several jugs in her hand:
"It seems to me that your patient ain't doing very well, Mère Lamort?"
"Oh, yes! oh, yes!"
"What's that? oh, yes? Why she hardly recognized me, and then she says things that don't mean anything."