een so pleased if you had waited. When one is acting one
likes to have friends in the house."

Chevalier replied ambiguously:

"Oh, as to friends, there are plenty of those about."

"You are mistaken, Monsieur Chevalier; good friends are scarce. Madame
Doulce was there, of course? Was she pleased with Felicie?" And she
added, with great humility: "I should indeed be happy if she could
really make a hit. It is so difficult to come to the fore in her
profession, for a girl who is alone, without support, without influence!
And it is so necessary for her to succeed, poor child!"

Chevalier did not feel disposed to lavish any pity upon Felicie. With a
shrug of the shoulders he replied bluntly:

"No need to worry about that. She'll get on. She is an actress heart and
soul. She has it in her bones, down to her very legs."

Madame Nanteuil indulged in a quiet smile.

"Poor child! They are not very plump, her legs. Felicie's health is not
bad, but she must not overdo it. She often has fits of giddiness, and
sick headaches."

The servant came in to place on the table a dish of fried sausage, a
bottle of wine, and a few plates.

Meanwhile, Chevalier was searching in his mind for some appropriate
fashion of asking a question which had been on the tip of his tongue
ever since he had set foot on the stairs. He wanted to know whether
Felicie was still meeting Girmandel, whose name he never heard mentioned
nowadays. We are given to conceiving desires which suit themselves to
our condition. Now, in the misery of his existence, in the distress of
his heart, he was full of an eager desire that Felicie, who loved him no
longer, should love Girmandel, whom she loved but little, and he hoped
with all his heart that Girmandel would keep her for him, would possess
her wholly, and leave nothing of her for Robert de Ligny. The idea that
the girl might be with Girmandel appeased his jealousy, and he dreaded
to learn that she had broken with him.

Of course he would never have allowed himself to question a mother as to
her daughter's lovers. But it was permissible to speak of Girmandel to
Madame Nanteuil, who saw nothing that was other than respectable in the
relations of her household with the Government official, who was
well-to-do, married, and the father of two charming daughters. To bring
Girmandel's name into the conversation he had only to resort to a
stratagem. Chevalier hit upon one which he thought was ingenious.

"By the wa