"They have a caleche and a landau and a coupe, and we have only a very shabby cabriolet! But monsieur must needs learn to drill, instead of giving his attention to making money!"

"I have several affairs under way, madame. If I sell Monin that house----"

"Well, come to some conclusion about it, monsieur. I tell you that I can't live like this any longer; I must have two new cashmeres, a lady's maid, a caleche, and a country house where I can give parties; not like that old barrack at Livry, which I can't endure now."

"Never fear, madame. I must have a clerk, a man cook, and a negro servant. I am going to venture into some new schemes, and you will see that we will soon crush that miserable parvenu, who murders the language with an a.s.surance that suffocates me."

The caleche, drawn by two spirited horses, bore away Athalie and the four young men of fashion, among whom was Dalville. Each of the four paid court to the pet.i.te-maitresse, who had the art of distributing a word, a smile, a glance, to each in turn, and revelled deliciously in the homage that was laid at her feet. Is there a greater joy for a true coquette than to be surrounded by men who wear her chains? Athalie was vivacious and playful; they knew that, to please her, they must be overflowing with hilarity, and the four gentlemen vied with one another in doing and saying the most extravagant things. Among all the _bons mots_ that were made, there were some very bad ones; for the more one tries to be witty, the less success one has. But Athalie, grateful for the efforts they made to entertain her, greeted them all with bursts of laughter; and the gentlemen zealously followed suit, although they would have been sorely puzzled sometimes to say what they were laughing about.

In the midst of this running fire of nonsense, the light vehicle arrived at the country house.

Madame de la Thoma.s.siniere's property at Fleury was a charming abode, which, in truth, left the little country house at Livry a long way behind. There, everything witnessed to luxury and elegance: s.p.a.cious courtyards, cardrooms, ballrooms and banquet-halls; peristyles of a severely simple style of architecture led to daintily furnished apartments; nothing had been forgotten that could increase the comfort and pleasure of the occupants of that charming abode. In the gardens, which were of vast extent, you found summer-houses for reading, for work, or for repose; cool grottoes, shady walks, dense shrubbery, labyrinths where one could lose oneself, delicious nooks where the rippling murmur of a brook invited one to dream or to do something else; and over that enchanting spot a lovely woman of twenty years reigned supreme and gave no thought to anything save the invention of new forms of amus.e.m.e.nt.

While the mistress of the house gave orders for an out-of-door breakfast, the gentlemen strolled about the gardens and admired their manifold beauties. Auguste walked alone toward a hedge between the garden and the orchard. It was a part of the garden where no one ever walked. Why, then, did Auguste turn his steps in that direction? Because he had caught sight of a short skirt and a little cap beyond the hedge, and an irresistible fascination drew the young man toward whatever suggested anything feminine.

Auguste entered the orchard, therefore, and saw a young woman picking apricots. She had neither the refined features nor the charm of Denise.

She was simply a rosy-cheeked, fresh, buxom damsel; but there are men who prefer that to waterfalls, grottoes and labyrinths constructed at vast expense; Auguste was one of them. Who would believe that a simple petticoat may be awarded the preference over the marvelous creations of art; that it may disturb the peace of an empire, overturn a republic, crush a whole people, astound the universe, ordain laws, and cause half of mankind to lose their senses? O Cleopatra, Elizabeth, Delilah, Judith, Ninon! your petticoats wrought all these miracles! To be sure, it was not your petticoats exactly to which your thanks were due.

The stout girl was standing on a ladder that rested against the tree, and was plucking the ripest fruit. Auguste walked to the ladder and looked up; I presume that he was looking at the apricots.

"I say! what are you doing there, monsieur?" said the girl, when, upon turning her head, she discovered the young man.

"My dear girl, I am admiring. I am a great lover of the beauties of nature, and I am as well able to appreciate them in sackcloth as in silk."

The stout girl, who did not understand this language, concluded that the gentleman was fond of apricots, and offered him one, saying:

"Here, monsieur, here's one that's good and ripe."

Auguste took the apricot and walked still nearer the ladder.

"I'm afraid that you'll fall," he said to the gardener; "I'll hold the ladder."

"Oh! it ain't worth while, monsieur, thanks; I know how to do it; anyway I can cling to the branches."

However, Auguste remained at the foot of the ladder, and as the girl was on the fourth rung, the young man's hand naturally found itself in close proximity to her leg, and, naturally again, that hand caressed a woolen stocking encasing a calf with which a dancer at the Opera would have been content.

The gardener continued to gather fruit while Auguste patted her calf.

"On my word!" he thought, "here's a peasant who knows what's what, who is learned in the ways of the world. She is not precisely one of Florian's shepherdesses. This leg reminds me rather of Teniers's Flemish women; but at all events, it doesn't scratch, and that's very lucky, for with such calves as these, the scar would be lasting."

"When I heard someone coming behind me," said the girl, "I thought at first 'twas monsieur."

"Monsieur! what monsieur?" inquired Auguste.

"Pardi! monsieur le bourgeois, my master."

"Ah! Monsieur de la Thoma.s.siniere?"

"Why, yes."

"So he comes into his orchard sometimes, does he?"

"Oh, yes! he comes here."

"Does he like apricots?"

"Oh, yes! apricots, and something else."

"Does he take hold of your leg too, my child?"

"Does he! pardi! rather! Catch him holding back!"

The stout girl chuckled, and Auguste said to himself:

"It seems that Monsieur de la Thoma.s.siniere, who talks of nothing but the d.u.c.h.esses, countesses and baronesses he courts, dances attendance on and deigns to be tender with his gardener. How many men try to take credit in society for brilliant conquests, when they have triumphed over n.o.body but their cook! However, there are many baronesses whose calves aren't as firm as these."

While he indulged in these reflections, the young man continued to pat the leg, and the stout girl to laugh. Her basket being full, she began to descend the ladder, and, as Auguste did not lower his hand, that member necessarily found itself above the calf, where there was still much to pat, and the stout girl laughed louder than ever.

"Does Monsieur de la Thoma.s.siniere permit himself to embrace you also?"

Auguste asked, looking the gardener in the face.

"Well, I say! well, pardie! Well, well, but you make me laugh!"

At that moment Auguste saw Athalie's pretty cap over the hedge, as that lady approached the orchard. He ceased instantly to make the stout girl laugh, and asked her hastily:

"Your name?"

"Tapotte."

"And your room?"

"Over there, at the end, by the shed where they keep the hay."

"Good; adieu--I'll see you again."

With that the young man walked quickly to the entrance to the orchard and pa.s.sed through at the very moment that Athalie reached the hedge.

"Where have you been hiding, monsieur?" she asked, with a smile.

"Why, madame--I went in here, you see, not knowing that it was the orchard, and, to tell you the truth, I have been eating your fruit."

"Before breakfast? that is very wrong. I am a wee bit selfish; I don't like anybody to take any pleasure without me. I supposed that you had found some milkmaid here on my place, some peasant girl, whose--ruddy complexion had taken your fancy."

"Oh, madame!"

"I do not think, however, that this establishment contains any rustic beauties worthy of your homage; for I a.s.sume that you still have some taste, and I agree that the little milkmaid was not bad-looking."

"True, true, she was very pretty; and you remind me----"

"Nonsense, monsieur; give me your arm and come to breakfast; everything is ready on a plot of greensward shaded by honeysuckle. The other gentlemen are waiting for us, and it is an unheard-of thing that I should have to come in search of you."