As became a constant inmate of the house, he had gone round by the dining room in order to avoid the crowded doors.

Rose had taken him up again at the beginning of the winter, and he was now dividing himself between the singer and the countess, but he was extremely fatigued and did not know how to get rid of one of them.
Sabine flattered his vanity, but Rose amused him more than she.

Besides, the passion Rose felt was a real one: her tenderness for him was marked by a conjugal fidelity which drove Mignon to despair.
"Listen, we want some information," said La Faloise as he squeezed his cousin's arm.

"You see that lady in white silk ?" Ever since his inheritance had given him a kind of insolent dash of manner he had affected to chaff Fauchery, for he had an old grudge to satisfy and wanted to be revenged for much bygone raillery, dating from the days when he was just fresh from his native province.
"Yes, that lady with the lace." The journalist stood on tiptoe, for as yet he did not understand.
"The countess ?" he said at last.
"Exactly, my good friend.

I've bet ten louis--now, has she thighs ?" And he fell a-laughing, for he was delighted to have succeeded in snubbing a fellow who had once come heavily down on him for asking whether the countess slept with anyone.