The baron glanced at Robineau for an instant, then exclaimed:
"Ah! this is Monsieur Robineau, I believe?"
"Yes, monsieur, an intimate friend of your son, who invited me to come; and I took advantage of——"
"My son’s friends will always be mine, monsieur, and they confer a favor on me by coming to my house."
As he spoke, Monsieur de Marcey bowed to Robineau, and passed on to speak with other guests, while the government clerk puffed himself up and sauntered through the throng, saying to himself:
"Monsieur de Marcey is always extremely amiable to me; indeed I consider him more amiable than his son, because he hasn’t always that mocking air.—Ah! there’s the music; they are going to dance. I think I will dance, too; but with a pretty woman, for I can never keep in step with an ugly one,—it’s no use for me to try."
The orchestra had given the signal; one of Tolbecque’s lovely strains drew the dancers together from all sides, and charmed the ears of those who did not dance, but who, as they watched beauty and innocence chasser and balancer, listened with delight to airs selected from our best composers’ prettiest operas.
Robineau addressed himself too late to several comely young ladies who were already engaged; he was forced to take a partner who had naught in her favor save her youth and a very stylish costume. He heard somebody call her madame la comtesse, and that made him desirous to distinguish himself as her partner; but she seemed to pay very little heed to his airs and graces, and replied only by monosyllables to the complimentary remarks he addressed to her.
"She’s a prude!" Robineau muttered, after he had escorted the countess to her seat; and he proceeded to invite a very attractive young person to whom also he essayed to play the amiable; but she contented herself with smiling at what he said to her, and seemed wholly intent on the dance.
"She’s a fool!" thought Robineau, as he carried his homage elsewhere. But finding that he created no sensation, despite his energetic movements and the smiles he lavished on his partners, he left the ball-room.