ix
and ten o'clock.'

"Maxime looked through the directory, and found the following reassuring
item:

"DENISART,* retired custom-house officer, Rue de la Victoire.

"His uneasiness vanished.

"Gradually the Sieur Denisart and the Sieur Croizeau began to exchange
confidences. Nothing so binds two men together as a similarity of
views in the matter of womankind. Daddy Croizeau went to dine with 'M.
Denisart's fair lady,' as he called her. And here I must make a somewhat
important observation.

"The reading-room had been paid for half in cash, half in bills signed
by the said Mlle. Chocardelle. The _quart d'heure de Rabelais_ arrived;
the Count had no money. So the first bill of three thousand francs was
met by the amiable coach-builder; that old scoundrel Denisart having
recommended him to secure himself with a mortgage on the reading-room.

"'For my own part,' said Denisart, 'I have seen pretty doings from
pretty women. So in all cases, even when I have lost my head, I am
always on my guard with a woman. There is this creature, for instance; I
am madly in love with her; but this is not her furniture; no, it belongs
to me. The lease is taken out in my name.'

"You know Maxime! He thought the coach-builder uncommonly green.
Croizeau might pay all three bills, and get nothing for a long while;
for Maxime felt more infatuated with Antonia than ever."

"I can well believe it," said La Palferine. "She is the _bella Imperia_
of our day."

"With her rough skin!" exclaimed Malaga; "so rough, that she ruins
herself in bran baths!"

"Croizeau spoke with a coach-builder's admiration of the sumptuous
furniture provided by the amorous Denisart as a setting for his fair
one, describing it all in detail with diabolical complacency for
Antonia's benefit," continued Desroches. "The ebony chests inlaid
with mother-of-pearl and gold wire, the Brussels carpets, a mediaeval
bedstead worth three thousand francs, a Boule clock, candelabra in
the four corners of the dining-room, silk curtains, on which Chinese
patience had wrought pictures of birds, and hangings over the doors,
worth more than the portress that opened them.

"'And that is what _you_ ought to have, my pretty lady.--And that is
what I should like to offer you,' he would conclude. 'I am quite aware
that you scarcely care a bit about me; but, at my age, we cannot expect
too much. Judge how much I love you; I have lent you a thousand francs.
I must confess that, in