"'No, Claude! I shall not laugh. I know too well what one suffers.'
"'Especially when love is hopeless.'
"'Hopeless?'
"'Alas! I have never spoken to her. Perhaps never shall!'
[142] "'Well! as for me, I don't even know the name of him to whom my heart is given!'
"'Ah! poor Phlipote!'
"'Poor Claude!'
"They had approached each other. The young man took the tiny hand of his friend, pressing it in his own.
"'The woman I adore is Mademoiselle Guimard!'
"'What! Guimard of the Opera?—the fiancée of Despréaux?'"