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.