The Flower Girl of The Chateau d'Eau Volume I Part 30

"But monsieur will still employ me when he needs a messenger?"

"That goes without saying. Now go."

Georget went away in a sad frame of mind, for at the bottom of his heart he was not content with himself. As he pa.s.sed through the reception room, he made no reply when Pongo called out to him:

"Monsieur Georget, Carabi not so bad now, he no claw nothing but my ear."

XV

A TRAP

To Georget's mind, the best way to find an excuse for his wrongdoing was to go to her who was the cause of his committing it; so that was what he did not fail to do; and as he looked at the fascinating flower girl, he said to himself:

"As if it would have been possible for me to live without seeing her!

Oh, no! I should have died of grief, and that would have made my mother more unhappy than all the rest! So I did well not to accept Monsieur Malberg's offer."

Thus it is that man always finds a way to compromise with his conscience and to put himself on pleasant terms with it.

Violette smiled pleasantly at Georget, saying:

"So you're not travelling all over Paris to-day, Georget?"

"No, mamzelle, my travels are ended; Monsieur Malberg doesn't want me to go on looking for his man.--But what has become of Chicotin? I never see him here now."

"That's true, he doesn't come so much as he did. I am not sorry, for he frequently knocked my customers down, and that would have ended by injuring my trade."

"Your customers! You mean the fine gentlemen who come here to make sweet speeches to you! Do you still see those fellows?"

"Dear me! when it pleases them to buy flowers of me I can't refuse to sell them."

"Ah! if I was rich, Mamzelle Violette, you wouldn't sell anything at all, you would have a home of your own, and a lovely room, with nothing else to do but arrange your hair!"

"Really, Georget, you would give me all that?"

"Indeed I would, and much more too if I had it!"

"Do you think that I would accept it from you rather than from another man?"

"Why, mamzelle, when a man has only honorable sentiments; you may be sure that I wouldn't offer that to you as a mistress, but as--as--as--Oh! Violette, you understand me well enough, but you are not willing to help me a little!"

"No, Georget, I do not choose to understand you, because I don't choose to take seriously the foolish things that you say to me."

"Foolish things! oh! you are mistaken, mamzelle; and if you knew,--if you could guess--you would no longer doubt my love! Yes, Violette, I love you. I must pluck up courage to tell you, if you refuse to believe it; I love you to the point of--but I mustn't tell you that."

"What is it? Come, Georget, finish. You say nothing? Poor boy! you imagine that you love me; but in a month, in less than that perhaps, you will have something else in your mind. You are a child, do you know!

A boy should never talk of love until he's twenty-one."

"Oh! mon Dieu! how I would like to grow old! So you don't believe me, mamzelle?"

"I say again that it's very possible that you believe what you say now; but it won't be so for long,--you are too young."

"Too young, that is the only thing you can throw in my face. What proofs do you want to make you believe in my love?"

"See, Georget, look at that little bit of a man pa.s.sing over there, who looks at me in such a funny way."

"Ah! I recognize him; it's the little squint-eyed fellow. I had an idea that that creature was in love with you too; but I am not jealous of him! he's too ugly! Why do you point him out to me? I wasn't talking about him, mamzelle."

"I pointed him out to you, Georget, because that little fellow, who can hardly be any older than you, a year at most, has been prowling about here all the time for several days; he constantly bargains for flowers with me, and then he too has told me that he adores me, and has suggested carrying me off and taking me to Saint-Germain or to Versailles, or even farther, declaring that he would make me happy."

"What! that little wretch has told you all that?"

"Yes, that little fellow has told me all those foolish things; and I laughed in his face--that was the best thing for me to do. Since then, he has ceased to speak to me, but he comes here just as often and hurls savage glances at me--look, as he is doing now."

"Ah! if he treats you discourteously, I'll go and say a word to him."

"No, Georget, he's not discourteous, for he doesn't speak; we can't prevent his walking here; and besides, I am always tempted to laugh when I look at him, remembering that one day Chicotin knocked him down in such a way that he tore both knees of his trousers."

"Oh! how I would have liked to see that! There he goes away; he has made up his mind it's no use, and he has done well."

"Well, Georget, if I had listened to what that young man said, do you think that I should have done right?"

"Oh, no! of course not!"

"So then you see that I should be no more reasonable if I should listen to you."

"Oh! what a difference, Violette! You compare my love with that of that little popinjay who hardly knows you! Whereas I have seen you and loved you for three years! So I am nothing more to you than the first comer who pays you compliments as he buys your bouquets! Ah! it isn't right to treat me so. You wouldn't act like this if you knew----"

"What? if I knew what? Ah! you tire me, constantly beginning sentences which you don't finis.h.!.+"

Georget had on the end of his lips the avowal of the sacrifice he had made to his love for Violette; for in youth, one has not become accustomed to sacrifices, and it is natural to boast of them. However, the young lover retained that secret which was on the point of escaping him; he suspected that the pretty flower girl would scold him roundly for having acted so, and that, far from approving his conduct, she would try to compel him to accept Monsieur Malberg's offer; so he deemed it prudent to hold his peace, and he did not answer Violette's questions.

At that moment someone came up who wanted Georget to run on an errand, and he seized that opportunity to take his leave, waving his hand as an adieu to the flower girl.

The pretty peddler was more moved than she had chosen to appear. Georget was such a dear fellow! It was the first time that he had told her in so many words that he loved her, and he had made that declaration in such a sweet voice, with such an affectionate expression, that it was difficult not to believe in his sincerity, and further, not to be touched by that genuine love, in which pa.s.sion was so artlessly expressed.

While giving her young lover sage advice, and while pretending to laugh at his suffering, Violette had nevertheless felt a very keen sensation; her heart had opened to a happiness that she had not as yet known, and she was herself amazed by the unfamiliar joy which filled her whole being.

About an hour had pa.s.sed since Georget had gone away, when a sort of servant approached Violette and said to her:

"Mademoiselle la bouquetiere, I want a fine bouquet for my mistress, Madame de Belleval; all the rarest flowers that you have; the price does not matter. I will give you a hundred sous in advance, and if that isn't enough, she will give you the rest."

"That will be enough, monsieur; for a hundred sous I will make you a superb bouquet!"

"But, mademoiselle, you must have the kindness to carry it to madame yourself, for I am in a great hurry; I haven't time to wait, and I shan't come back this way."

"I am to carry the bouquet? Is it far from here?"