des, fire should go to fire, as water makes for the
river."

"You are talking as if it were a real love-letter, Naqui----"

"Well, am I not handsome enough to receive them?" she said, holding up
her forehead for a kiss. There was a carelessness in her manner that
would have told any man less blind than Castanier that it was only a
piece of conjugal duty, as it were, to give this joy to the cashier, but
use and wont had brought Castanier to the point where clear-sightedness
is no longer possible for love.

"I have taken a box at the Gymnase this evening," he said; "let us have
dinner early, and then we need not dine in a hurry."

"Go and take Jenny. I am tired of plays. I do not know what is the
matter with me this evening; I would rather stay here by the fire."

"Come, all the same though, Naqui; I shall not be here to bore you much
longer. Yes, Quiqui, I am going to start to-night, and it will be some
time before I come back again. I am leaving everything in your charge.
Will you keep your heart for me too?"

"Neither my heart nor anything else," she said; "but when you come back
again, Naqui will still be Naqui for you."

"Well, this is frankness. So you would not follow me?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Eh! why, how can I leave the lover who writes me such sweet little
notes?" she asked, pointing to the blackened scrap of paper with a
mocking smile.

"Is there any truth in it?" asked Castanier. "Have you really a lover?"

"Really!" cried Aquilina; "and have you never given it a serious
thought, dear? To begin with, you are fifty years old. Then you have
just the sort of face to put on a fruit stall; if the woman tried to see
you for a pumpkin, no one would contradict her. You puff and blow like a
seal when you come upstairs; your paunch rises and falls like a diamond
on a woman's forehead! It is pretty plain that you served in the
dragoons; you are a very ugly-looking old man. Fiddle-de-dee. If you
have any mind to keep my respect, I recommend you not to add imbecility
to these qualities by imagining that such a girl as I am will be content
with your asthmatic love, and not look for youth and good looks and
pleasure by way of a variety----"

"Aquilina! you are laughing, of course?"

"Oh, very well; and are you not laughing too? Do you take me for a fool,
telling me that you are going away? 'I am going to start to-night!'" she
said, mimicking his tones. "Stuff and nonsense! Would you talk like that
if you we