“I’ll show you the way, my dear,” said Virginie; “you might lose yourself in Paris.”
“I was going to offer you my arm, mamzelle,” said Bertrand.
“No, thanks, Monsieur Bertrand, don’t put yourself out; it isn’t necessary.”
“Why not, Mamzelle Denise?”
“We’ll find the way all right. As for Monsieur Auguste, tell him we won’t trouble him any more.”
“You’re wrong to be put out with him, Mamzelle Denise; if somebody hadn’t been waiting for him——”
“Yes, to be sure,” said Virginie, “it was very polite of him: to not so much as thank this pretty child for her present! magnificent chickens, fine pears, and fresh eggs! Fresh eggs are so good! Will you allow me to put three in my bag for my breakfast to-morrow?”
“As many as you please, madame,” said Denise; “for I see very clearly that Monsieur Auguste cares very little indeed for what we took so much pleasure in bringing him.”
“I tell you, my dear, that men ain’t worth a pirouette,” said Virginie, putting four eggs into her reticule; then she followed Denise, who left the room with the child, refusing Bertrand’s escort.
Madame Saint-Edmond was coming upstairs with a young man at the moment that Denise, with a heavy heart and red eyes, left Dalville’s apartment, leading Coco by the hand. Léonie was furiously angry with Auguste since he had left her in a swoon on the landing, to go in search of Bertrand. Having abandoned the hope of renewing her relations with him, she seized every opportunity to annoy him. That is the way in which a woman who has never loved always takes her revenge.