Madame de Marelle approached them. “You will see me home, Pretty-boy?” said she. “You know I only came such a distance to dinner on that condition.” And turning to Madeleine, she added: “You are not jealous?”
Madame Du Roy answered slowly: “Not over much.”
The guests were taking their leave. Madame Laroche-Mathieu looked like a housemaid from the country. She was the daughter of a notary, and had been married to the deputy when he was only a barrister of small standing. Madame Rissolin, old and stuck-up, gave one the idea of a midwife whose fashionable education had been acquired through a circulating library. The Viscountess de Percemur looked down upon them. Her “Lily Fingers” touched these vulgar hands with repugnance.
Clotilde, wrapped in lace, said to Madeleine as she went out: “Your dinner was perfection. In a little while you will have the leading political drawing-room in Paris.”
As soon as she was alone with George she clasped him in her arms, exclaiming: “Oh, my darling Pretty-boy, I love you more and more every day!”