you talk of Cephyse; we don't progress.'
'May I be eaten by the black panther that they are showing at the Porte Saint-Martin if I do not tell you the truth. And, talking of that, you must get tickets to take me to see those animals, my little Ninny Moulin! They tell me there never were such darling wild beasts.'
'Now really, are you mad?'
'Why so?'
'That I should guide your youth, like a venerable patriarch, through the dangers of the Storm-blown Tulip, all well and good—I ran no risk of meeting my pastors and masters; but were I to take you to a Lent Spectacle (since there are only beasts to be seen), I might just run against my sacristans—and how pretty I should look with you on my arm!'
'You can put on a false nose, and straps to your trousers, my big Ninny; they will never know you.'
'We must not think of false noses, but of what I have to tell you, since you assure me that you have no intrigue in hand.'
'I swear it!' said Rose-Pompon, solemnly, extending her left hand horizontally, whilst with her right she put a nut into her mouth. Then she added, with surprise, as she looked at the outside coat of Ninny Moulin, 'Goodness gracious! what full pockets you have got! What is there in them?'
'Something that concerns you, Rose-Pompon,' said Dumoulin, gravely.
'Me?'
'Rose-Pompon!' said Ninny Moulin, suddenly, with a majestic air; 'will you have a carriage? Will you inhabit a charming apartment, instead of living in this dreadful hole? Will you be dressed like a duchess?'
'Now for some more nonsense! Come, will you eat the olives? If not, I shall eat them all up. There is only one left.'
Without answering this gastronomic offer, Ninny Moulin felt in one of his pockets, and drew from it a case containing a very pretty bracelet, which he held up sparkling before the eyes of the young girl.
'Oh! what a sumptuous bracelet!' cried she, clapping her hands. 'A green-eyed serpent biting his tail—the emblem of my love for Philemon.'
'Do not talk of Philemon; it annoys me,' said Ninny Moulin, as he clasped the bracelet round the wrist of Rose-Pompon, who allowed him to do it, laughing all the while like mad, and saying to him, 'So you've been employed to make a purchase, big apostle, and wish to see the effect of it. Well! it is charming!'
'Rose-Pompon,' resumed Ninny Moulin, 'would you like to have a servant, a box at the Opera, and a thousand francs a month for your pin-money?'
'Always the same nonsense. Get along!' said the young girl, as she held up the bracelet to the light, still continuing to eat her nuts. 'Why always the same farce, and no change of bills?'
Ninny Moulin again plunged his hand into his pocket, and this time drew forth an elegant chain, which he hung round Rose-Pompon's neck.
'Oh! what a beautiful chain!' cried the young girl, as she looked by turns at the sparkling ornament and the religious writer. 'If you chose that also, you have a very good taste. But am I not a good natured girl to be your dummy, just to show off your jewels?'
'Rose-Pompon,' returned Ninny Moulin, with a still more majestic air, 'these trifles are nothing to what you may obtain, if you will but follow the advice of your old friend.'
Rose began to look at Dumoulin with surprise, and said to him, 'What does all this mean, Ninny Moulin? Explain yourself; what advice have you to give?'
Dumoulin did not answer, but replunging his hand into his inexhaustible pocket, he fished up a parcel, which he carefully unfolded, and in which was a magnificent mantilla of black lace. Rose-Pompon started up, full of new admiration, and Dumoulin threw the rich mantilla over the young girl's shoulders.
'It is superb! I have never seen anything like it! What patterns! what work!' said Rose-Pompon, as she examined all with simple and perfectly disinterested curiosity. Then she added, 'Your pocket is like a shop; where did you get all these pretty things?' Then, bursting into a fit of laughter, which brought the blood to her cheeks, she exclaimed, 'Oh, I have it! These are the wedding-presents for Madame de la Sainte-Colombe. I congratulate you; they are very choice.'
'And where do you suppose I should find money to buy these wonders?' said Ninny Moulin. 'I repeat to you, all this is yours if you will but listen to me!'
'How is this?' said Rose-Pompon, with the utmost amazement; 'is what you tell me in downright earnest?'
'In downright earnest.'
'This offer to make me a great lady?'
'The jewels might convince you of the reality of my offers.'
'And you propose all this to me for some one else, my poor Ninny Moulin?'
'One moment,' said the religious writer, with a comical air of modesty, 'you must know me well enough, my beloved pupil, to feel certain that I should be incapable of inducing you to commit an improper action. I respect myself too much for that—leaving out the consideration that it would be unfair to Philemon, who confided to me the guardianship of your virtue.'
'Then, Ninny Moulin,' said Rose-Pompon, more and more astonished, 'on my word of honor, I can make nothing of it.
'Yet, 'tis all very simple, and I—'
'Oh! I've found it,' cried Rose-Pompon, interrupting Ninny Moulin; 'it is some gentleman who offers me his hand, his heart, and all the rest of it. Could you not tell me that directly?'
'A marriage? oh, laws, yes!' said Dumoulin, shrugging his shoulders.
'What! is it not a marriage?' said Rose-Pompon, again much surprised.
'No.'
'And the offers you make me are honest ones, my big apostle?'
'They could not be more so.' Here Dumoulin spoke the truth.
'I shall not have to be unfaithful to Philemon?'
'No.'
'Or faithful to any one else?'
'No.'
Rose-Pompon looked confounded. Then she rattled on: 'Come, do not let us have any joking! I am not foolish enough to imagine that I am to live just like a duchess, just for nothing. What, therefore, must I give in return?'
'Nothing at all.'
'Nothing?'
'Not even that,' said Ninny Moulin, biting his nail-tip.
'But what am I to do, then?'
'Dress yourself as handsomely as possible, take your ease, amuse yourself, ride about in a carriage. You see, it is not very fatiguing—and you will, moreover, help to do a good action.'
'What! by living like a duchess?'
'Yes! so make up your mind. Do not ask me for any more details, for I cannot give them to you. For the rest, you will not be detained against your will. Just try the life I propose to you. If it suits you, go on with it; if not, return to your Philemonic household.'
'In fact—'
'Only try it. What can you risk?'
'Nothing; but I can hardly believe that all you say is true. And then,' added she, with hesitation, 'I do not know if I ought—'
Ninny Moulin went to the window, opened it, and said to Rose-Pompon, who ran up to it, 'Look there! before the door of the house.'
'What a pretty carriage! How comfortable a body'd be inside of it!'
'That carriage is yours. It is waiting for you.'
'Waiting for me!' exclaimed Rose-Pompon; 'am I to decide as short as that?'
'Or not at all.'
