laces.

"Do you know if she likes them?"

"She eats no other kind of sweets; everybody knows it.

"Ah," he went on when we had left the shop, "do you know what kind of
woman it is that I am going to introduce you to? Don't imagine it is
a duchess. It is simply a kept woman, very much kept, my dear fellow;
don't be shy, say anything that comes into your head."

"Yes, yes," I stammered, and I followed him, saying to myself that I
should soon cure myself of my passion.

When I entered the box Marguerite was in fits of laughter. I would
rather that she had been sad. My friend introduced me; Marguerite gave
me a little nod, and said, "And my sweets?"

"Here they are."

She looked at me as she took them. I dropped my eyes and blushed.

She leaned across to her neighbour and said something in her ear, at
which both laughed. Evidently I was the cause of their mirth, and
my embarrassment increased. At that time I had as mistress a very
affectionate and sentimental little person, whose sentiment and whose
melancholy letters amused me greatly. I realized the pain I must have
given her by what I now experienced, and for five minutes I loved her as
no woman was ever loved.

Marguerite ate her raisins glaces without taking any more notice of me.
The friend who had introduced me did not wish to let me remain in so
ridiculous a position.

"Marguerite," he said, "you must not be surprised if M. Duval says
nothing: you overwhelm him to such a degree that he can not find a word
to say."

"I should say, on the contrary, that he has only come with you because
it would have bored you to come here by yourself."

"If that were true," I said, "I should not have begged Ernest to ask
your permission to introduce me."

"Perhaps that was only in order to put off the fatal moment."

However little one may have known women like Marguerite, one can not but
know the delight they take in pretending to be witty and in teasing the
people whom they meet for the first time. It is no doubt a return for
the humiliations which they often have to submit to on the part of those
whom they see every day.

To answer them properly, one requires a certain knack, and I had not had
the opportunity of acquiring it; besides, the idea that I had formed
of Marguerite accentuated the effects of her mockery. Nothing that dame
from her was indifferent to me. I rose to my feet, saying in an altered
voice, which I could not entirely control:

"If that is wh