"Good-bye till to-morrow."
"Yes, to-morrow, Boulevard de Villiers. Come early."
She was leaning on him preparatory to stepping down from the cab. Suddenly she started back.
"There! There! Among the trees. He has seen us. He was watching us."
"Who, then?"
"A man—some one I don't know."
She had just recognized Chevalier. She stepped out, rang the bell, and, nestling in Robert's fur coat, waited, trembling, for the door to open. When it was opened, she detained him.
"Robert, see me upstairs, I am frightened."
Not without some impatience, he followed her up the stairs.
Chevalier had waited for Félicie, in the little dining-room, before the armour which she had worn as Jeanne d'Arc, together with Madame Nanteuil, until one o'clock in the morning. He had left at that hour, and had watched for her on the pavement, and on seeing the cab stop in front of the door he had concealed himself behind a tree. He knew very well that she would return with Ligny; but when he saw them together it was as if the earth had yawned beneath him, and, so that he should not fall to the ground, he had clutched the trunk of the tree. He remained until Ligny had emerged from the house; he watched him as, wrapped in his fur coat, he got into the cab, took a couple of steps as if to spring on him, stopped short, and then with long strides went down the boulevard.