Volume III Part 38 (1/2)
”A very annoying visit”
”I saw that she would not tell me the true reason, and as she was very calm, I did not trouble myself any more about it, and hoped to make up for lost time with the other, the next day, and on the Tuesday, I was veryvery excited, and amorous in expectation of the public official's little wife, and I was surprised that she had not come before the appointed time, and I looked at the clock every moment, and watched the hands impatiently, but the quarter past, then the half-hour, then two o'clock I could not sit still any longer, and walked up and down very soon in great strides, putting ainst the , andupstairs”
”Half-past two, three o'clock! I seizeda novel my dear fellow! 'Well!' I said, anxiously, and she replied as calmly as usual: 'I was hindered, and could not co visit'
”Of course, I i, but she seemed so calht it was only soe coincidence, as I could not believe in such dissimulation on her part, and so, after half-an-hour's friendly talk, which was, however, interrupted a dozen ti in and out of the rooine the next day”
”The sa happened?”
”Yes, and the next also And that went on for three weeks without any explanation, without anything explaining that strange conduct to me, the secret of which I suspected, however”
”They knew everything?”
”I should think so, by George But how? Ah! I had a great deal of anxiety before I found it out”
”How did you e it at last?”
”Froave me their dismissal in identical terms”
”Well?”
”This is hoas You know that women always have an array of pins about them I know hairpins, I doubt them, and look after them, but the others are much more treacherous; those confounded little black-headed pins which look all alike to us, great fools that we are, but which they can distinguish, just as we can distinguish a horse fro
”Well, it appears that one day my minister's little wife left one of those tell-tale instrulass My usual one had ier than a flea, and had taken it out without saying a word, and then had left one of her pins, which was also black, but of a different pattern, in the same place
”The next day, the minister's ished to recover her property, and inized the substitution Then her suspicions were aroused, and she put in two and crossed thenal by three black pellets, one on the top of the other, and as soon as this un, they continued to co a word, only to spy on each other Then it appears that the regular one, being bolder, wrapped a tiny piece of paper round the little wire point, and wrote upon it: _C D, Poste Restante, Boulevards, Malherbes_
”Then they wrote to each other You understand that was not everything that passed between theems, with all the prudence that is necessary in such cases, but the regular one did a bold stroke, and made an appointment with the other I do not knohat they said to each other; all that I know is, that I had to pay the costs of their interview There you have it all!”
”Is that all?”
”Yes”
”And you do not see the your pardon I see theether”
”And have they ain?”
”Yes, my dear fellow, they have becoiven you an idea?”
”No, what idea?”