Volume I Part 44 (2/2)
”We won't quarrel about our tastes. Adore Thelenie, my dear Monsieur Chamoureau, it is your right! but tell me the name of the charming girl who was with Madame Dalmont.”
”Her name! how should I know it? Oh, yes! I remember now that her friend called her Agathe several times.”
”Agathe! her name is Agathe, you say! What a sweet name!”
”Thelenie is a much more distinguished name; and the proof is that it isn't to be found in the Saints' Calendar!”
”Then that lady is her friend, her kinswoman, her cousin perhaps. Is she rich?”
”No, her means are very modest.”
”What does the husband do?”
”There isn't one; the lady is a widow.”
”No husband; so much the better!”
”Why so much the better? Do you propose to marry the widow?”
”I don't say that. But when there is no man in a house----”
”It is easier to get in, you think, eh?”
”Oh, no! just the opposite; for it is almost always the husband who takes his friends to his house.”
”There's no man at Madame Sainte-Suzanne's, but that doesn't prevent her receiving men. She received me, indeed she herself invited me to come to see her.”
”For G.o.d's sake, Monsieur Chamoureau, let us drop Thelenie!”
”I am in love with her, monsieur, I am pa.s.sionately in love with her!”
”So it would seem, as your pa.s.sion made you forget the business Madame Dalmont placed in your hands.--Ah! that was very bad!”
”Here is Monsieur Courtivaux's house; are you going up with me?”
”I should say so! you are quite capable of talking to him of nothing but Thelenie!”
Edmond accompanied the agent to the apartment of the owner of the house at Ch.e.l.les. He was very accommodating; he was anxious to get rid of his little country estate, and thanks to the eloquence of Edmond, who impressed it upon him that the purchaser was a young widow of small means, he consented to pay the expenses of the transaction. He gave them his notary's address, and suggested that they meet there at three o'clock on the following day. Edmond declared that Madame Dalmont would be there punctually, and informed Monsieur Courtivaux that he would go at once to advise the notary.
While the young man hastily made this arrangement, Chamoureau stood in rapt contemplation before a woman's portrait, and whispered in Edmond's ear:
”Don't you think it looks like her?”
”Like whom?”
”Her!”
”Mademoiselle Agathe?”
<script>