"Monsieur," she said, "I do not know who could have put into your mind
so great an error as to my life, nor by what right you--"

"Ah! pardon me, madame," interrupted the Provencal with a coolness
that smacked of contempt. "I must have dreamed it. I said to myself,
'She is all that!' But I see I was judging from the outside. I know
now why you are living and will always live on a fourth floor in the
rue d'Enfer."

And he pointed his speech with an energetic gesture toward the
Colleville windows, which could be seen through the passage from the
alley of the Luxembourg, where they were walking alone, in that
immense tract trodden by so many and various young ambitions.

"I have been frank, and I expected reciprocity," resumed Theodose. "I
myself have had days without food, madame; I have managed to live,
pursue my studies, obtain my degree, with two thousand francs for my
sole dependence; and I entered Paris through the Barriere d'Italie,
with five hundred francs in my pocket, firmly resolved, like one of my
compatriots, to become, some day, one of the foremost men of our
country. The man who has often picked his food from baskets of scraps
where the restaurateurs put their refuse, which are emptied at six
o'clock every morning--that man is not likely to recoil before any
means,--avowable, of course. Well, do you think me the friend of the
people?" he said, smiling. "One has to have a speaking-trumpet to
reach the ear of Fame; she doesn't listen if you speak with your lips;
and without fame of what use is talent? The poor man's advocate means
to be some day the advocate of the rich. Is that plain speaking? Don't
I open my inmost being to you? Then open your heart to me. Say to me,