Volume VI Part 11 (2/2)
V
Two one by, September was at hand, and the rapid fortune which Duroy had hoped for see He was, above all, uneasy at the mediocrity of his position, and did not see by what path he could scale the heights on the summit of which one finds respect, power, andof a reporter, so walled in as to be unable to get out of it He was appreciated, but estimated in accordance with his position Even Forestier, to whoer invited him to dinner, and treated hi him as a friend
Froot in a short article, and having acquired through his paragraphs ato hier ran any risk of having his descriptive efforts refused But fro with political questions with authority, there was as great a difference as driving in the Bois de Boulogne as a coache That which hu was to see the door of society closed to him, to have no equal relations with it, not to be able to penetrate into the intih several well-known actresses had occasionally received him with an interested familiarity
He knew, moreover, from experience that all the sex, ladies or actresses, felt a singular attraction towards him, an instantaneous sympathy, and he experienced the i those whoht of calling on Mada checked and hu an invitation to do so from her husband Then the recollection of Mada that she had asked him to co to do
”I am always at ho at the bell of her residence, a fourth floor in the Rue de Verneuil, at half-past two
At the sound of the bell a servant opened the door, an untidy girl, who tied her cap strings as she replied: ”Yes, Madame is at home, but I don't knohether she is up”
And she pushed open the drawing-room door, which was ajar Duroy went in The roo
The chairs, worn and old, were arranged along the walls, as placed by the servant, for there was nothing to reveal the tasty care of the woman who loves her ho a boat on a stream, a shi+p at sea, ain the center of the four walls by cords of unequal length, and all four on one side It could be divined that they had been dangling thus askew ever so long before indifferent eyes
Duroy sat down i time Then a door opened, and Madaown of rose-colored silk embroidered with yellow landscapes, blue flowers, and white birds
”Fancy! I was still in bed!” she exclaiood of you to cootten hted air, and Duroy, whom the commonplace appearance of the room had put at his ease, kissed one, as
he had seen Norbert de Varenne do
She begged hi him from head to foot, said: ”How you have altered! You have iood Coossip at once, as if they had been old acquaintances, feeling an instantaneous fa one of those mutual currents of confidence, intis of the saood friends
Suddenly, Madaet on with you It seeh I had known you for ten years We shall becoood friends, no doubt Would you like it?”
He answered: ”Certainly,” with a s in her soft and bright-hued gown, less refined and delicate than the other in her white one, butand spicy When he was beside Madaracious smile which attracted and checked at the same time; which seemed to say: ”You pleasewas never clear, he felt above all the wish to lie down at her feet, or to kiss the lace bordering of her bodice, and slowly inhale the warm and perfumed atmosphere that must issue from it With Madame de Marelle he felt within him a more definite, a ers quiver in presence of the rounded outlines of the light silk
She went on talking, scattering in each phrase that ready wit of which she had acquired the habit just as a workman acquires the knack needed to accomplish a task reputed difficult, and at which other folk are astonished He listened, thinking: ”All this is worth reossip by getting her to chat over the events of the day”
Some one tapped softly, very softly, at the door by which she had entered, and she called out: ”You can coirl ht up to Duroy, and held out her hand to him The astonished er recognize her”
The young fellow, having kissed the child, made her sit down beside him, and with a serious manner asked her pleasant questions as to what she had been doing since they last rave and grown-up air