“Monsieur Robineau is back, mademoiselle,” said the former with sneering politeness.
“He is still at table,” added the other. “But if it's anything important you can go in.”
Denise continued on her way without replying or turning round; but when she passed the dining-room of the managers and second-hands, she could not help just looking in, and saw that Robineau was really there. She resolved to try and speak to him in the afternoon, and continued her journey along the corridor to her dining-room, which was at the other end.
The women took their meals apart, in two special rooms. Denise entered the first one. It was also an old cellar, transformed into a refectory; but it had been fitted up with more comfort. On the oval table, in the middle of the apartment, the fifteen places were further apart and the wine was in decanters, a dish of skate and a dish of beef with pungent sauce occupied the two ends of the table. Waiters in white aprons attended to the young ladies, and spared them the trouble of fetching their portions from the wicket The management had thought that more decent.
“You went round, then?” asked Pauline, already seated and cutting herself some bread.
“Yes,” replied Denise, blushing, “I was accompanying a customer.”
But this was a falsehood. Clara nudged her neighbour. What was the matter with the “unkempt girl?” She was quite strange in her ways. One after the other she had received letters from her lover; then, she went running all over the shop like a madwoman, pretending to be going to the work-room, where she did not even make an appearance. There was something up, that was certain. Then Clara, eating her skate without disgust, with the indifference of a girl who had been used to nothing better than rancid bacon, spoke of a frightful drama, the account of which filled the newspapers.
“You've heard about that man cutting his mistress's throat with a razor, haven't you?”
“Well!” said a little quiet delicate-looking girl belonging to the under-linen department, “he found her with another fellow. Serve her right!”
But Pauline protested. What! just because one had ceased to love a man, he should be allowed to cut your throat? Ah! no, never! And stopping all at once, she turned round to the waiter, saying: “Pierre, I can't get through this beef. Just tell them to do me an extra, an omelet, nice and soft, if possible.”