How I spent the rest of the day I do not know; I walked, smoked, talked,
but what I said, whom I met, I had utterly forgotten by ten o'clock in
the evening.
All I remember is that when I returned home, I spent three hours over
my toilet, and I looked at my watch and my clock a hundred times, which
unfortunately both pointed to the same hour.
When it struck half past ten, I said to myself that it was time to go.
I lived at that time in the Rue de Provence; I followed the Rue du
Mont-Blanc, crossed the Boulevard, went up the Rue Louis-le-Grand, the
Rue de Port-Mahon, and the Rue d'Antin. I looked up at Marguerite's
windows. There was a light. I rang. I asked the porter if Mlle. Gautier
was at home. He replied that she never came in before eleven or a
quarter past eleven. I looked at my watch. I intended to come quite
slowly, and I had come in five minutes from the Rue de Provence to the
Rue d'Antin.
I walked to and fro in the street; there are no shops, and at that hour
it is quite deserted. In half an hour's time Marguerite arrived. She
looked around her as she got down from her coupe, as if she were
looking for some one. The carriage drove off; the stables were not at
the house. Just as Marguerite was going to ring, I went up to her and
said, "Good-evening."
"Ah, it is you," she said, in a tone that by no means reassured me as to
her pleasure in seeing me.
"Did you not promise me that I might come and see you to-day?"
"Quite right. I had forgotten."
This word upset all the reflections I had had during the day.
Nevertheless, I was beginning to get used to her ways, and I did not
leave her, as I should certainly have done once. We entered. Nanine had
already opened the door.
"Has Prudence come?" said Marguerite.
"No, madame."
"Say that she is to be admitted as soon as she comes. But first put out
the lamp in the drawing-room, and if any one comes, say that I have not
come back and shall not be coming back."
She was like a woman who is preoccupied with something, and perhaps
annoyed by an unwelcome guest. I did not know what to do or say.
Marguerite went toward her bedroom; I remained where I was.
"Come," she said.
She took off her hat and her velvet cloak and threw them on the bed,
then let herself drop into a great armchair beside the fire, which she
kept till the very beginning of summer, and said to me as she fingered
her watch-chain: "Well, what news have you got for me?"