Thanks to Alfred, they cut loose from the cab and arrived without other mishaps at the Palais-Royal. They went to Beauvilliers’, and Robineau ordered all the most expensive dishes; if his two companions had not checked him, he would have provided a breakfast for twenty and would have shouted at the top of his lungs that he had twenty-five thousand francs a year.
"By the way," said Alfred, "what of Fifine? you don’t mention her. She must be much pleased by what has happened to you, isn’t she?"
"Fifine!" repeated Robineau, with a distraught air; "oh! I haven’t had time yet to see her since I went to my notary’s.—My notary! I say, messieurs, how that rings in the ear! My notary!"
"Do you mean to say, Monsieur Robineau," said Edouard, "that you have not yet imparted your good news to her who was so dear to you a week since? Pray consider that when a woman has loved you for yourself alone, you owe her a debt of gratitude; and the least that you can do is to let her share your pleasure in what has happened to you."
"Edouard is right," said Alfred; "when you have had the good luck to fall in with a good, sensible, loyal woman, it seems to me, my friend, that you can hardly do too much for her."
"Messieurs, messieurs," replied Robineau, nibbling at the wing of a chicken, "it is very easy for you to talk; perhaps you would like me to make Mademoiselle Fifine my wife; that would be very pretty!"
"We know very well that you won’t do that; but——"
"But I can’t keep that little milliner for my mistress either. You must agree that when one has a considerable fortune, one may fly at higher game, more distinguished. And then, messieurs, between ourselves, Mamzelle Fifine isn’t exactly a model of virtue; indeed she falls very far short of it. I have noticed several times that—you understand—but I have always pretended not to see anything, because I wasn’t in love with her. And then, she has a flighty disposition, a very quick temper; she’s a perfect dragon. For my part, I like mild-mannered women. I am accustomed to her face; but the fact is that she isn’t pretty; she has a bold look and that’s all."
"Oh! I say, Robineau, you don’t propose to tell us now that she hasn’t a good figure; she was a Venus the other night."
"Oh, yes! a strange kind of Venus! And she made me spend all my money on little parties of two; two-thirds of my salary went that way."