"Then it wasn’t worth while to make such a terrible fuss, my friend."
"There’s a cabstand almost in front of the house. I wonder if you would be kind enough to go down with me and call one?"
"That’s it; the only thing left for me to do will be to ride behind. But no matter; this is one of my good-natured days; forward!"
Robineau locked his door; Fifine went downstairs with him and called a cab, into which Robineau jumped after pressing the young milliner’s hand affectionately. She watched him go and called to him once more:
"Don’t forget to bring me something good!"
III
RECEPTION AT THE BARON DE MARCEY’S.--A SUPPER PARTY OF YOUNG MEN AND ITS RESULTS
The cab halted in front of a handsome hôtel. There was a long line of private carriages waiting to enter the courtyard; one would have thought that they were taking their owners to the Bouffes, or to see the English actors. There is not so large an audience at the Français when they are playing Molière or Racine; but our actors have not made a special study of the death agony of a moribund; they do not exhibit to us all the dying convulsions of a man who is being murdered, nor make us hear all the hiccoughs of a princess who is starving to death; those pretty little episodes are very pleasant to witness, they excite the nerves of people who need such tableaux to arouse the slightest emotion. And yet there are some people who claim that it is more difficult to act well a scene from Tartufe or Le Misanthrope, than to imitate a scene from the Place de Grève. But let us allow every one to follow his or her taste, and let us be content to congratulate him who still enjoys a play that does not last forty years, and who is moved by a scene in which no one dies.
When he saw the throng of carriages and the brilliantly lighted salons, Robineau said to himself:
"This will be a very numerous, very fashionable and very well assorted affair!"
He at once alighted from his cab, and hurried toward the entrance, passing his hand over his curls and putting on his second glove. Then he went up to the first floor, reflecting thus: