"I will mention nothing but the bird to him."
"What I ask you will not annoy mademoiselle, I hope?"
"Annoy her? why, pray? She will worry Jéricourt, and we will laugh at him.—I may rely upon you now, may I not?"
"Absolutely."
"Until the day after to-morrow then, at half-past five, at Bonvalet's."
"I shall not fail you."
Saint-Arthur shook Roncherolle's hand and left him; Roncherolle continued his walk, but more slowly, like a person too much engrossed to notice what is going on about him.
On the second day thereafter, about five o'clock in the afternoon, Roncherolle, who had taken much pains with his toilet, walked toward the booth of the pretty flower girl of the Château d'Eau.
Violette greeted her neighbor with a pleasant smile, saying:
"Ah! what a pleasure it is to see you like this, monsieur! how well you look! no one would ever suspect that you had been so sick."