I promised to be at the wedding, and the young lady gave a skip of joy
which made me think her prettier than ever.

On Sunday I repaired to the house, but I could neither eat nor drink. The
fair Mdlle. Gilbert kept me in a kind of enchantment which lasted while I
was in company with her friends, for whom I did not care. They were all
officials in noblemen's houses, with their wives and daughters, who all
aped the manners of their betters in the most ridiculous way; nobody knew
me and I was known to nobody, and I cut a sorry figure amongst them all,
for in a company of this sort the wittiest man is the greatest fool.
Everybody cracked his joke to the bride, she answered everybody, and
people laughed at nothing.

Her husband, a thin and melancholy man, with a rather foolish expression,
was delighted at his wife's keeping everybody amused. Although I was in
love with her, I pitied rather than envied him. I guessed that he had
married for monetary considerations, and I knew pretty well what kind of
a head-dress his handsome, fiery wife would give her husband, who was
plain-featured, and seemed not to be aware of his wife's beauty. I was
seized with the desire of asking her some questions, and she gave me the
opportunity by coming to sit next to me after a quadrille. She thanked me
again for my kindness, and said that the beautiful dress I had supplied
had won her many compliments.

"All the same," I said, "I know you are longing to take it off. I know
what love is and how impatient it makes one."

"It's very funny that everyone persists in thinking that I am in love,
though I saw M. Baret for the first time only a week ago. Before then I