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 what you think of me, madame, I have only to ask your
pardon for my indiscretion, and to take leave of you with the
assurance that it shall not occur again."

Thereupon I bowed and quitted the box. I had scarcely closed the
door when I heard a third peal of laughter. It would not have
been well for anybody who had elbowed me at that moment.

I returned to my seat. The signal for raising the curtain was
given. Ernest came back to his place beside me.

"What a way you behaved!" he said, as he sat down. "They will
think you are mad."

"What did Marguerite say after I had gone?"

"She laughed, and said she had never seen any one so funny. But
don't look upon it as a lost chance; only do not do these women
the honour of taking them seriously. They do not know what
politeness and ceremony are. It is as if you were to offer
perfumes to dogs--they would think it smelled bad, and go and
roll in the gutter."

"After all, what does it matter to me?" I said, affecting to
speak in a nonchalant way. "I shall never see this woman again,
and if I liked her before meeting her, it is quite different now