have done, after our walk. I am heartbroken to-night that I did not tell
you. You will laugh at me, and you will take me for a man who simply
talks nonsense. You will show me the door, and fancy that I am not
speaking the truth. . . . I am in love with you. . . ."

She did not laugh at him, though, and she did not show him the door.
Things did not drag on long, evidently, as she writes to her confessor,
Sainte-Beuve, on the 25th of August: "I have fallen in love, and very
seriously this time, with Alfred de Musset." How long was this to
last? She had no idea, but for the time being she declared that she was
absolutely happy.

"I have found a candour, a loyalty and an affection which delight me. It
is the love of a young man and the friendship of a comrade." There was
a honeymoon in the little flat looking on the Quay Malaquals. Their
friends shared the joy of the happy couple, as we see by Musset's
frolicsome lines:

_George est dans sa chambrette,
Entre deux pots de fleurs,
Fumiant sa cigarette,
Les yeux baignes de pleurs._

_Buloz assis par terre
Lui fait de doux serments,
Solange par derriere
Gribouille ses romans._

_Plante commme une borne_,
_Boucoiran tout crott_,