CHAPTER VIII.
THE COST OF A FIVE FRANC PIECE One Saturday evening, at a time when he had not yet gone into housekeeping with Mademoiselle Mimi, who will shortly make her appearance, Rodolphe made the acquaintance at the table d'hote he frequented of a ladies' wardrobe keeper, named Mademoiselle Laure.
Having learned that he was editor of "The Scarf of Iris" and of "The Beaver," two fashion papers, the milliner, in hope of getting her goods puffed, commenced a series of significant provocations.

To these provocations Rodolphe replied by a pyrotechnical display of madrigals, sufficient to make Benserade, Voiture, and all other dealers in the fireworks of gallantry jealous; and at the end of the dinner, Mademoiselle Laure, having learned that he was a poet, gave him clearly to understand that she was not indisposed to accept him as her Petrarch.
She even, without circumlocution, made an appointment with him for the next day.
"By Jove," said Rodolphe to himself, as he saw Mademoiselle Laure home, "this is certainly a very amiable young person.

She seems to me to have a good grammar and a tolerably extensive wardrobe.

I am quite disposed to make her happy." On reaching the door of her house, Mademoiselle Laure relinquished Rodolphe's arm, thanking him for the trouble he had taken in accompanying her to such a remote locality.
"Oh! madame," replied Rodolphe, bowing to the ground, "I should like you to have lived at Moscow or the islands of the Sound, in order to have had the pleasure of being your escort the longer." "That would be rather far," said Laure, affectedly.
"We could have gone by way of the Boulevards, madame," said Rodolphe.
"Allow me to kiss you hand in the shape of your cheek," he added, kissing his companion on the lips before Laure could make any resistance.
"Oh sir!" she exclaimed, "you go too fast." "It is to reach my destination sooner," said Rodolphe.

"In love, the first stages should be ridden at a gallop." "What a funny fellow," though the milliner, as she entered her dwelling.
"A pretty girl," said Rodolphe, as he walked away.
Returning home, he went to bed at once, and had the most delightful dreams.