to be unfolded and shown to him, precisely like an Englishwoman in the
humor for "shopping." The young person deigned to take notice of Cesar,
perceiving, by certain symptoms known to women, that he came more for
the seller than the goods. He dictated his name and address to the
young lady, who grew very indifferent to the admiration of her
customer once the purchase was made. The poor clerk had had little to
do to win the good graces of Ursula; in such matters he was as silly
as a sheep, and love now made him sillier. He dared not utter a word,
and was moreover too dazzled to observe the indifference which
succeeded the smiles of the siren shopwoman.

For eight succeeding days Cesar mounted guard every evening before the
Petit-Matelot, watching for a look as a dog waits for a bone at the
kitchen door, indifferent to the derision of the clerks and the
shop-girls, humbly stepping aside for the buyers and passers-by, and
absorbed in the little revolving world of the shop. Some days later he
again entered the paradise of his angel, less to purchase
handkerchiefs than to communicate to her a luminous idea.

"If you should have need of perfumery, Mademoiselle, I could furnish
you in the same manner," he said as he paid for the handkerchiefs.

Constance Pillerault was daily receiving brilliant proposals, in which
there was no question of marriage; and though her heart was as pure as
her forehead was white, it was only after six months of marches and
counter-marches, in the course of which Cesar revealed his
inextinguishable love, that she condescended to receive his
attentions, and even then without committing herself to an answer,
--a prudence suggested by the number of her swains, wholesale
wine-merchants, rich proprietors of cafes, and others who made soft