She
knows how to listen to you; she gives you the opportunity of shining,
and--I ask your modesty--those moments are rare?"
The candid simplicity of the young Pole, to whom Blondet spoke, made
all the party shout with laughter.
"Now, you will not talk for half-an-hour with a /bourgeoise/ without
her alluding to her husband in one way or another," Blondet went on
with unperturbed gravity; "whereas, even if you know that your lady is
married, she will have the delicacy to conceal her husband so
effectually that it will need the enterprise of Christopher Columbus
to discover him. Often you will fail in the attempt single-handed. If
you have had no opportunity of inquiring, towards the end of the
evening you detect her gazing fixedly at a middle-aged man wearing a
decoration, who bows and goes out. She has ordered her carriage, and
goes.
"You are not the rose, but you have been with the rose, and you go to
bed under the golden canopy of a delicious dream, which will last
perhaps after Sleep, with his heavy finger, has opened the ivory gates
of the temple of dreams.
"The lady, when she is at home, sees no one before four; she is shrewd
enough always to keep you waiting.
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