righten me, but on the condition that they surround a pretty, a
very pretty and stylish woman--a great deal of style! That's _my_
programme. I want to be able to take my wife to the theatres without
having to blush before the box-openers."

"What do you mean? Before the box-openers?"

"Why, certainly. I am known, and I've a reputation to keep up. You see,
the openers are always the same--always; and of course they know me.
They've been in the habit of seeing me, during the last three or four
years, come with the best-known and best-dressed women in Paris. Which
is to say, that I should never dare present myself before them with that
creature from Roubaix. They would think I had married for money. I tried
to explain that delicately to papa, but one can't make him hear reason.
There are things which he doesn't understand, which he can't understand.
I have no grudge against him; he's of his time, I'm of mine. In short, I
declared resolutely that I would never marry Number One. Notice that I
discoursed most sensibly with papa. I said to him: 'You want me to have
a home' (home is his word), 'but when I should have placed in that home
a fright such as to scare the sparrows, my home would be a horror to me,
and I should be forced, absolutely forced, to arrange a home outside.
Thus I should have a household at home and a household outside, and it's
then that the money would fly!' But papa won't listen to anything! He
doesn't understand that I must have a little wife who is pretty,
Parisian pretty--that is to say, original, gay, jolly, who is looked at
on the street, and stared at through opera-glasses at the theatre, who
will do me honor, and who will set me off well. I must be able to
continue my bachelor life with her, and as long as possible. And then
there's another thing that I can't tell papa. His name is Chamblard--it
isn't his fault; only, in consequence, I too am named Chamblard, and
it's not very agreeable, with a name like that, to try to get on in
society. And a pretty, a very pretty, woman is the best passport. There,
look at Robineau. He has just been received into the little club of the
Rue Royale. And why? It's not the Union or the Jockey; but never mind,
one doesn't get in there as into a hotel. And why was Robineau
received?"

"I don't know."

"It's because he has married a charming woman, and this charming woman
is a skater of the first rank. She had a tremendous success on the ice
at the Bois de Boulogne