human
How happy I am! you still love me! Ah! this moment makes me forget all my cares. To think that anyone should dare to say that I love any other woman! You do not believe it, Elina, you will never believe it! Poor messenger that I am, am I not fortunate enough to be loved by you? what more could I desire?
gpt
Yes, I believe that you love me. I won't be angry any more; it makes one too wretched to be angry with a person one loves. Look at me; I am willing to see your face now. Oh! it seems to me that you have grown paler, that you have changed, since I saw you. Have you been sick?
human
No; it's the vexation and disappointment I have suffered.
gpt
You haven't told me yet what you were doing those eleven days.
human
I have been with a person, a friend, who was very ill; he had nobody but me to take care of him, so I could not leave him.
gpt
Oh! in that case, I am not angry with you any more. But you never mentioned this friend to me.
human
Because I seldom see him--only when he needs me.
gpt
You are not lying to me? you haven't taken anybody's mistress?
human
I have thought of nobody but you.
gpt
Good! now I am happy again. I had so many things to tell you; but when two people are together, they don't think--that is to say, they think too much--well, I don't know how it happens, but I forget everything else.
human
Dear Elina!
gpt
Oh! wait--I remember now. First of all, there's a young man--one of those who came and laughed at us, you remember, when we were in the loft.
human
Yes, indeed, I remember; but which one?
gpt
He's tall, but not handsome, and he has a bold, impertinent manner.
human
I see which you mean; it must be Monsieur Célestin.
gpt
Well, I noticed several times that he followed me when I came out of Madame Dumanchon's at night, to go home; he walked very close to me, and spoke to me, said a lot of foolish things, I don't know what, for I didn't listen, I never once answered him, and I walked so fast, to avoid hearing him, that I assure you he had to run to keep up with me.--'If Monsieur Paul was here with me,' I said to myself, 'he wouldn't dare to follow me, and I shouldn't be afraid of this horrid man.'
human
Poor Elina! did that fellow dare to insult you?
gpt
I don't know whether he did or not, for I didn't listen to him. Once he tried to take my arm and stop me, but I released myself so quickly, and pushed him away so hard, that he stood as if he was dazed, in the middle of the street. Well, he didn't follow me any more, and I was very glad; but this morning----
human
This morning?
gpt
One of your comrades--not Sans-Cravate, but the other one----
human
Jean Ficelle?
gpt
Yes. As I came down from my aunt's lodgings, I found him at the door.--'Mademoiselle,' he said, 'my comrade Paul would like to speak to you; he's waiting for you at a little restaurant close by, at the end of the street; I'll show you the place.'
human
The villain!
gpt
That seemed very strange to me; however, as I had asked your comrades about you yesterday, I believed that he had seen you, and that you had asked him to give me that message. So I followed this Jean Ficelle.--'Why don't Monsieur Paul come himself?' I asked him. 'What prevents him? is he sick?' But the man only answered, in a sort of wheedling tone: 'I don't know, mamzelle; but he asked me to tell you that he must speak to you, and I'm just doing his errand.' At last we arrived in front of a restaurant, and he said: 'This is the place; my comrade's expecting you; go right in, don't be afraid, and ask for Paul; and they'll take you where he is.'
human
Oh! what an infernal scoundrel that Jean Ficelle is! to second the scheme of a man who intended to outrage you! So that is what he meant to hint at this morning when he said that someone might rob me of the woman I loved. And I was so far from suspecting it! I didn't pay the slightest attention to his words.--But what happened next?
gpt
Well, I was about to go into the restaurant, when something, I don't know what, held me back. The girls in the workroom have often talked about places to which men had tried to entice them on one pretext or another. I said to myself: 'If Monsieur Paul is in here, it seems to me that it will be enough for me to send him word that I am here, and he will come out.' Jean Ficelle had disappeared, so I waited till a waiter passed the door, and said to him: 'Be kind enough to tell Monsieur Paul that I am waiting for him down here.' The waiter laughed, and told me I must go upstairs; but when he saw that I insisted on staying in the street, he said he would take my message; and in a moment I saw the same young man coming who had followed me so often. When I saw him, I cried out; he tried to hold me, but I was already a long way off, thanking heaven that I didn't go into the house.