enough--"

"And so--"

"And so--"

"So Robert wished to bring you to Mme. de Vernieux's. And you didn't
want to go! If you hadn't come, however, and if there had been a box at
the Bouffes-Parisiens, or if you had won at bezique, my marriage with M.
de Courtalin would have been publicly announced the next day."

"Yes, but I came; and there I was in the corner looking at you, looking
at you, looking at you. It was you, and yet not you--"

"I, immediately on seeing the way you were looking at me, understood
that something extraordinary was going to happen. Your eyes shone,
burned, blazed!"

"Because I had discovered that you were simply the prettiest woman of
the ball, where all the prettiest women of Paris were. Yes, the
prettiest, and such shoulders, such shoulders!"

"Ripe! in fact, I was ripe!"

"My head was turned at once. I saw Courtalin manoeuvring and trying to
get near you. I understood that there was not a moment to be lost. To
reach there ahead of Courtalin I threw myself intrepidly into the midst
of the room, among the waltzers, pushing and being pushed. I forged a
passage and tore into rags one of the lace flounces of Mme. de
Lornans--she hasn't yet forgiven me. But I got there--I got there before