“M. Jacques, do not insult me, if you please.”
“I do not insult you, Catherine. I acknowledge your charms, to which I should like to render the same homage that others do.”
“M. Jacques, what you have now said smells odiously of the cookshop, of that old codger who is your father.”
“Not so very long ago, Mam’selle Catherine, you were mighty glad to smell its cooking-stove.”
“Fie! the villain! the mean rascal! He outrages a woman!”
And now she began to squeak and squeal, and M d’Anquetil left his servants, came up to us, and pushed her into the house, calling her a cheat and a rake, went into the passage behind her, and slammed the door in my face.
CHAPTER XV
In the Library with M. Jerome Coignard—A Conversation on Morals—Taken to M. d’Asterac’s Study—Salamanders again—The Solar Powder—A Visit and its Consequences.
The thought of Catherine occupied my mind all the week following that vexatious adventure. Her image glittered on the leaves of the folios over which I bent in the library, close to my dear tutor; so much so that Plotinus, Olympiodorus, Fabricius, Vossius spoke of nothing else to me than a tiny damsel in a lace chemise. These visions rendered me lazy. But, indulgent to others, as to himself, M. Jerome Coignard had a kind smile for my trouble and distraction.