“Pray, madame, grant us a little more time,” said Rigolette. “It is so very long since I saw my dear Goualeuse!”
“I should be glad to do so,” replied Madame Séraphin, much annoyed at this meeting between the two friends; “but it is now three o’clock, and we have a long way to go. However, I will manage to allow you ten minutes longer gossip. So pray make the best of your time.”
“And tell me, I pray, of yourself,” said Fleur-de-Marie, affectionately pressing the hands of Rigolette between her own. “Are you still the same merry, light-hearted, and happy creature I always knew you?”
“I was happy and gay enough a few days ago; but now—”
“You sorrowful? I can hardly believe it.”
“Ah, but indeed I am! Not that I am at all changed from what you always found me,—a regular Roger Bontemps,—one
