me out of it, that skinflint did! And how about you? You have made her come down a peg lower, I hope."

" Ah ! I ! " I answered, " I am very unhappy ! And so a consul is her lover now ! "

Gabrielle relit her extinguished cigarette and shrugged her shoulders.

" Her lover ! Do you think women like that can keep a lover ! She could not keep the Lord himself, my dear ! Ah, men don't stick to her very long, I tell you. They come one day and then the next they pitch camp somewhere else. Well, thanks very much ! It's all right to fleece them but you must do it with your gloves on, don't you think? And you are still in love with her, poor boy."

" Still why I am more so than ever ! I have done everything to cure myself of this shameful infatuation which makes me the lowest of men, which kills me, but I can't. Well now, she is leading a loathsome life, isn't she?"

"Ah! Well. . . that's true," Gabrielle exclaimed, blowing a cloud of smoke in the air. " You know that I myself don't play the prude. I am enjoying myself just like everybody else. . . but honestly. . . I can swear. ... I'd feel ashamed to do what she does ! "

With head turned, she was emitting coils of smoke which rose tremblingly toward the ceiling. And to emphasize what she had just said :

" That's the truth I am telling you," she repeated.

Although I suffered cruelly, although every word of Gabrielle cut my heart as with a knife, I came up to her and coaxingly:

" Come, my little Gabrielle," I begged her, " tell me all about her ! "

" Tell you ! . . tell you ! Wait now ! You know the two Borgsheim brothers. . . those two dirty Germans! Well, Juliette was with both of them at the