Mdme, de Belcour (as soon as Miss Shaw and the Barings had returned to their studios). "It is disgusting! She encourages him—any one can see how she encourages him—then she turns round and betrays him! Ce pauvre cher Doucet! To make him a laughing-stock, it is cruel—unfeminine! No woman with the common instincts of her sex would treat an admirer so!"
Prof. Genron. "If more women behaved so, madame, the world would not be populated with so many fools."
Mdme. Martineau. "She gave him a good lesson, at any rate. C'est d'un inconvenant! To come, uninvited, to a young girl's room! But he is a poet. C'est tout dit. Poets are made like that."
Narishkine. "He was rehearsing for the part of 'L'Amoureux Transi.'"
Dr. Morin (laughing). "He is young, and he is enterprising; and mademoiselle is able to take care of herself. But did you see the American's face when she opened her batteries on Doucet? He flushed—he bit his lip. I thought he was going to throw the caraffe at our poet's head!"
Mdme. de B. (under her breath). "Perhaps she was waiting for him. I should not wonder. C'est une fine mouche—allez!"
Prof. Genron (grinning sardonically). "Belief in virtue, I observe, is like faith. It must be inherent. It cannot be acquired."
Dr. Morin. "Till late in life. When we are too old to do much harm, some of us believe in our own virtue."
