Volume V Part 35 (1/2)
As he was rising up to go, he asked:
”When would you like me to come back to speak about this business to you, Mam'zelle Donet?”
”If it is all the same to you, say next Thursday, Monsieur Cesar In that way, I would lose none of my time, as I always have my Thursdays free”
”That will suit me--next Thursday”
”You will coive you a proested is that people can chat better when they are eating One has more time too”
”Well, be it so About twelve o'clock, then”
And he took his departure, after he had again kissed little Emile, and pressed Mademoiselle Donet's hand
PART III
The week appeared long to Cesar Hautot He had never before found himself alone, and the isolation seemed to him insupportable Till now, he had lived at his father's side, just like his shadow, followed him into the fields, superintended the execution of his orders, and, when they had been a short tiaintheir pipes, face to face with one another, chatting about horses, cows or sheep, and the grip of their hands when they rose up in the arded as a manifestation of deep family affection on both sides
Now Cesar was alone, he went vacantly through the process of dressing the soil of autu silhouette of his father rising up at the end of a plain To kill tihbors, told about the accident to all who had not heard of it, and sometimes repeated it to the others Then, after he had finished his occupations and his reflections, he would sit down at the side of a road, asking hi to last for ever
He frequently thought of Madehly respectable, a gentle and honest young woman, as his father had said Yes, undoubtedly she was an honest girl He resolved to act handsoive her two thousand francs a year, settling the capital on the child He even experienced a certain pleasure in thinking that he was going to see her on the following Thursday and arrange this matter with her And then the notion of this brother, this little chap of five, as his father's son, plagued him, annoyed him a little, and, at the same time, exhibited hi from a clandestine alliance, ould never bear the naht take or leave, just as he pleased, but which would recall his father
And so, when he saw hi by Graindorge trotting with clattering foot-beats, he felt his heart lighter, more at peace than he had hitherto felt it since his bereave Mademoiselle Donet's apartment, he saw the table laid as on the previous Thursday with the sole difference that the crust had not been re woman's hand, kissed Emile on the cheeks, and sat down, more at ease than if he were in his own house, his heart swelling in the same way Mademoiselle Donet seerieved sorely She wore now an air of constraint in his presence, as if she understood what she had not felt the week before under the first blow of her misfortune, and she exhibited an excessive deference towards hi efforts to please him, as if to pay him back by her attentions for the kindness he hadover the business, which had brought him there She did not want so h to live on herself, but she only wished that E Cesar held out, however, and even added a gift of a thousand francs for herself for the expense of
When he had taken his coffee, she asked:
”Do you smoke?”
”Yes--I have otten it! He was becoone about it when she offered him a pipe of his father that had been shut up in a cupboard He accepted it, took it up in his hand, recognized it, smelled it, spoke of its quality in a tone of ehted it Then, he set Emile astride on his knee, and made him play the cavalier, while she removed the tablecloth, and put the soiled plates at one end of the sideboard in order to wash theone
About three o'clock, he rose up with regret, quite annoyed at the thought of having to go
”Well! Made, and ahted to have found you like this”
She reazed at hiht of the other
”Shall we not see one another again?” she said