The
Bourgeois knew that his poor almsmen would be standing there, and
he would no more avoid them than he would avoid the Governor.
A group of girls very gaily dressed loitered through the market,
purchasing bouquets of the last of autumnal flowers, and coquetting
with the young men of fashion who chose the market-place for their
morning promenade, and who spent their smiles and wit freely, and
sometimes their money, upon the young ladies they expected to find
there.
This morning the Demoiselles Grandmaison and Hebert were cheapening
immortelles and dry flowers to decorate their winter vases,--a
pleasant fashion, not out of date in the city at the present day.
The attention of these young ladies was quite as much taken up with
the talk of their cavaliers as with their bargaining when a quick
exclamation greeted them from a lady on horseback, accompanied by
the Chevalier de Pean. She drew bridle sharply in front of the
group, and leaning down from her saddle gave her hand to the ladies,
bidding them good morning in a cheery voice which there was no
mistaking, although her face was invisible behind her veil.
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