Part 59 (1/2)
”Good-day, then! I have my cue!”
And Cherami rushed from the room in a rage, saying to himself:
”If I had such an uncle as that, I'd disinherit him!”
XLI
THE YOUNG WIDOW
For several days, Cherami went every morning and inquired of the banker's concierge if the young traveller had returned; but as he always received a negative reply, he soon tired of repeating the same trip to no purpose, and confined himself to going there once a week.
Meanwhile, time pa.s.sed, and Cherami, reduced once more to the necessity of living on his slender income, found himself anew without enough money in his pocket to buy a cigar.
But winter had given place to spring, fine weather had returned, and the ex-beau strolled about in search of acquaintances more persistently than ever.
One morning, near the Chateau d'Eau, he saw two girls, apparently waiting for an omnibus; he walked toward them, saying to himself:
”Par la sambleu! I believe those are my pretty feather-makers. Yes, they certainly are Mesdemoiselles Laurette and Lucie.”
Hearing their names, the young women turned and looked at the stranger, who bowed low to them. Suddenly Laurette, the dark one, cried:
”Ah! I recognize monsieur now; he's the one who talked with us at Porte Saint-Martin last summer.”
”Yes, mesdemoiselles; the same. Are you going up to Belleville again?”
”Yes, monsieur.”
”And to the restaurant in Parc Saint-Fargeau?”
”No, monsieur; but we have a friend who lives in the village of L'Avenir.”
”And where might the village of L'Avenir be, if you please?”
”What! you don't know it?”
”I have never been able to read the future (_l'avenir_), and I was not aware that it had a village.”
”It's in Romainville Forest, a little this side, on high land from which you get a fine view. There have been a lot of houses built there, almost all alike; small, but very neat and prettily decorated, each with its little garden. As they don't cost much, and you can pay on very easy terms, why, the village of L'Avenir sprang up all at once, as if by magic.”
”Pardieu! I'll go and buy a house there--as soon as I'm in funds. Ah!
mesdemoiselles, I have hunted everywhere for you! If you knew all that I have done to find you!”
”Us, monsieur? Why did you want to find us?”
”To ask you to go to the play and to supper.”
”Ah! what a fine idea! But perhaps we wouldn't have accepted?”