For that matter, M. Hilaire never looked like a servant, even in the days when he was employed as one by a certain Marquis, who treated him more as a confidential friend than as a secretary or valet.
M. Hilaire, on this particular day, had dressed himself with special care as a man of fashion. A check suit, with gaiters, a gray felt hat, and a blue butterfly bow with white spots, gave him an air of renewed youth as well as a very gentlemanly appearance. He was even wearing a flower in his buttonhole.
When he reached the railway station he pulled up and leaped from the car with a delightfully easy bearing. He gave a tip which enabled him to wait for the train from Paris on the platform from which the common herd was excluded.
The train from Paris was late as usual. M. Hilaire lit a cigar, and walked up and down with his hands behind his back. Whom was he waiting for? We may be certain that if he had been expecting Virginie he would not have put himself to so much expense in the matter of dress.
Notwithstanding that his visit, which he hoped would have been a peaceful one, had been attended by unforeseen complications, Hilaire had made up his mind to spend a few pleasant hours while he was on the Riviera. The time has come, perhaps, to show him in a light which is not an entirely favorable one. It is certain that Hilaire, who had been brought up in an austere school in so far as morals were concerned, and nurtured from his earliest childhood on the maxims of Chéri-Bibi, who not only hated a dissolute life but also any failure in respect to women—it is certain that M. Hilaire would have been incapable of committing, in this particular, an equivocal action; and Mademoiselle Zoé's ingenuousness was in little danger from him. For long he had treated her as a mischievous chit, which indeed she was. He did not stand on ceremony when he wanted to pass through her attic on his way over the roofs to some nocturnal frolic of his own, which was detrimental to no one, except perhaps Virginie; but for some time the saucy young gypsy had greatly amused him. She amused him all the more as Virginie wearied him all the more. Madame Hilaire abused the right which a wife possesses to make herself disagreeable, and if M. Hilaire found some amount of pleasure in the fantastic ideas and the humorous sallies of Mademoiselle Zoé, the fault lay to a great extent in Virginie and her bad temper. So much so, that M. Hilaire's heart, which was breaking away more and more every day from Virginie, was drawing nearer and nearer every day to Zoé, and he made no attempt to prevent it. So much so, that it was not Virginie whom he was expecting from Paris, but Mademoiselle Zoé herself. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, they both arrived by the same train!
At first he saw but one of them, for the very good reason that they did not travel together; and more particularly because Mademoiselle Zoé had boldly treated herself to a first class ticket, and was unaware that her dear mistress was behind her in a second class carriage.
While Hilaire had decked himself out for the occasion, Mademoiselle Zoé had not allowed herself to be outdone by him. She was sporting a pink frock, with hat to match, both of which achieved some success before she arrived at Nice.
Though she threw herself into M. Hilaire's arms the moment she saw him, it was not from over-forwardness nor lack of guilelessness, but because her heart was brimming over with thankfulness to him for having found her a situation as second lady's maid to the celebrated dancer, Nina Noha, and in such a beautiful neighborhood. It is needless to say that she had given Virginie "the chuck" with a glad heart.
All this was vouched for by hugs and kisses which made M. Hilaire and several passengers laugh, for they could not tear themselves away from the contemplation of the youthful traveler and her pink frock and hat.
It was at that splendid moment of triumph that a lady of opulent corsage loomed into sight from no one knew where and, waving her arms as though she were demented, set to work to break her umbrella alternately over the back of Zoé and the back of Hilaire.