M. Hilaire still bore the mark of Madame Hilaire's umbrella on his left cheek, and this injury, though it was ever so slight, did not incline him to pity her troubles overmuch.
"You can be easy now, my dear Zoé. You will enter the service of important people. The celebrated Dr. Ross is going to take you to the not less celebrated Nina Noha, who will know how to protect you better than I do, worse luck, from Madame Hilaire's unreasonable ways; and if, by chance, she takes it into her head to return to this part, where she is not wanted, those people will find means of getting rid of her for us."
Having uttered these reassuring words, M. Hilaire and Mademoiselle Zoé had nothing more to do but to admire the landscape. It was very beautiful. They were driving along the sea front on the road from Cannes.
The air was soft, though great clouds were beginning to rise in the sky, driven by the west wind, which usually portended some degree of atmospheric disturbance for the approaching night. But Hilaire and Zoé were intent only upon the passing hour. Hilaire's heaven at that moment was in his heart, so that the other heavens, with their gathering clouds, scarcely interested him. With Zoé at his side he forgot everything, even the order which his master, M. de Saynthine, had given him to be at the corner of the Rue Basse, in the old town, at five o'clock punctually with the car, with the hood up and the iron shutters.
An order like that was, of course, at once brought to the knowledge of M. Casimir, and M. Casimir himself gave M. Hilaire to understand that he must on no account fail to keep the appointment. M. Casimir, in fact, added: "It's quite likely that I myself shall want a car. It's very good of M. de Saynthine to lend me his!"
But these instructions, which at first aroused the Dodger's interest, were, at that moment, no more than an unsubstantial trifle in a lover's brain!
M. Hilaire's cheeks flushed under the look, at, once mischievous and grateful, which the handsome Zoé threw at him. He was conscious that she pressed closer to him, and his steering became slightly erratic.
"How well you drive, Monsieur Hilaire," she said. "You must teach me; will you?"
"Why, of course; whenever you like—the car doesn't belong to me!"
"How funny you are. Monsieur Hilaire. One never gets bored with you. Will you have a plum?"