"So it is agreed, my friend," she softly resumed. "I rely on you to take
Alexandre, in the first place, as a clerk. You can see him here one
evening at five o'clock, after dusk, for I do not wish him to know at
first what interest I take in him. Shall we say the day after to-morrow?"
"Yes, the evening of the day after to-morrow, if it pleases you, dear
madame."
On the morrow Morange displayed so much agitation that the wife of the
door-porter of the house where he resided, a woman who was ever watching
him, imparted her fears to her husband. The old gentleman was certainly
going to have an attack, for he had forgotten to put on his slippers when
he came downstairs to fetch some water in the morning; and, besides, he
went on talking to himself, and looked dreadfully upset. The most
extraordinary incident of the day, however, was that after lunch Morange
quite forgot himself, and was an hour late in returning to his office, a
lack of punctuality which had no precedent, which, in the memory of
everybody at the works, had never occurred before.
As a matter of fact, Morange had been carried away as by a storm, and,
walking straight before him, had once more found himself on the Grenelle
bridge, where Denis had one day saved him from the fascination of the
water.
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