“No, it isn’t settled. There are very delicate details which we can’t settle like this in the street. Come and see me and I will show you my Baudouins. Come to-morrow.”
He whispered the address, the number of a house in a dull deserted street in the Quartier de l’Europe. There, at a respectable distance from his lawful and spacious domicile in the Champs-Élysées, he had a small house, built in former days for a fashionable painter.
“Is there any special hurry?”
“I should say so. Just think, my dear madame, we have only three weeks left for our electoral campaign and Brécé has been working the department for six months.”
“But is it quite necessary that I should come and see your——?”
“My Baudouins? It is indispensable.”
“Listen and judge for yourself, dear lady. I do not deny that your husband’s name has a certain prestige among the rural population, especially in the parts where he is little known. But I cannot disguise the fact that when I proposed to add his name to our list I met with opposition. This opposition still exists. You must give me strength to overcome it. I must draw from your—your friendship the irresistible will to—— In short, I feel that if you do not give me your sympathy I shall not have the necessary energy to——”
“But is it quite proper for me to go and see your——?”
“Oh, in Paris!”