COURTSHIP AND CRIBBAGE
a great many spangles, that I wanted. It is just like the stuff that Toto's ballet skirt is made of. But the gown is for me to wear the day I am presented to the Holy Father, and Madame Bourcet said the pink spangled thing would not do. Then she bought me some black lace to wear over my head that day, and she paid a cruel price for it, but the shops where you get new things are very dear. Madame Bourcet will not let me go to the second-hand shops. Do you remember the blue silk robe that Monsieur Duvernet made me buy a year ago for forty francs, and how it turned out to have a big grease-spot in the back, and I was so afraid the spot would be seen, that it almost ruined my performance as Léontine in 'Papa Bouchard'? And how do you get your costumes to hang together when I am not there to sew them? I know you are coming all to pieces by this time. Have you forgotten how I used to sew you up? Oh, Cartouche, have you forgotten all these things? I think of them all the time. I wake up in the night, thinking I hear Toto barking, and it is only Madame Bourcet snoring. Cartouche, if you don't come to see me soon you will break my heart.
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