She said that she had not come across the girl, but she was sure to come, as otherwise she would not have accepted the invitation.
Abellino received the pleasant tidings very angrily, and left Mrs.Meyer alone in the antechamber.

Diable! if they should make a fool of him, after all! There, however, he could not afford to display his anger; no, there he had to carry it off with a joyous, triumphant, provocative face to the very end.

He would rather lose all his money than be left in the lurch by the girl now.
Presently he went out again to ask Mrs.Meyer whether she had not told the girl that he meant to make her his wife.
Oh yes; and the girl seemed greatly delighted at the idea.
And again he cheered up a bit, and returned to the assembly room, and did his best to amuse Monsieur Griffard.
They were handing round the tea, and the Countess X---- had just begun to sing the "Casta Diva," when Abellino's lackey sidled up to his master and whispered in his ear-- "I have just seen Miss Fanny Meyer descending from a carriage." Abellino pressed into the servant's hand as many ducats as he happened to have about him, pulled himself together, and got up and looked at himself in a mirror.

He was elegant and genteel, at any rate, that everybody would be bound to allow.

His whole get-up was unexceptionable--his chin was clean-shaven, his moustache and whiskers were downright picturesque, his cravat was ravishing, and his vest magnificent.
And now the flunkey whose duty it was to announce the arrivals, entered the room (Abellino caught sight of him in the mirror), and announced in his ceremonious _salon_ voice, "Madame Fanny de Karpathy, _nee_ de Meyer!" "The deuce!" thought Abellino; "the wench is making pretty free with my name.