She was examining him also, and thought that he looked tired and nervous, his eyes heavy, his complexion livid.
"Well," she resumed, in a tone which she endeavoured to render agreeable, "I cannot return your compliment; you don't look at all well this evening."
"Overwork!" remarked Vallagnosc.
Mouret shrugged his shoulders, without replying. He had just caught sight of Bouthemont, and nodded to him in a friendly way. During their closer intimacy he himself had been wont to take him away from the department, and bring him to Henriette's during the busiest moments of the afternoon. But times had changed; and he now said to him in an undertone:
"You went away very early. They noticed your departure, and are furious about it."
He referred to Bourdoncle and the other persons who had an interest in the business, as if he were not himself the master.
"Ah!" murmured Bouthemont, anxiously.
"Yes, I want to talk to you. Wait for me, we'll leave together."
Henriette had now sat down again; and, while listening to Vallagnosc, who was announcing that Madame de Boves would probably pay her a visit, she did not take her eyes off Mouret. The latter, again silent, gazed at the furniture, and seemed to be looking for something on the ceiling. Then, as she laughingly complained that she now only had gentlemen at her four o'clock tea, he so far forgot himself as to blurt out:
"I expected to find Baron Hartmann here."