"Much madame cares about your godfather's knowledge! You fancy that the whole world knows him!"
"Oh well! if you don't know him," said Juliot to Madame d'Estrelle, "I'll show him to you. He isn't far away, you know!"
"What!" said Marcel, much annoyed, "is he here? do you see him?"
"Yes, I've seen him quite awhile. He likes Polyeucte so much! He has seen it more than ten times, I am sure! See, look in the pit, the third row. His back is turned to us; but I recognize him, pardi! He has on his black coat and his chapeau à gances."
Madame d'Estrelle's heart beat very fast. She looked at the bench which the child indicated, and recognized no one there. Marcel scrutinized it closely. Juliot had made a mistake. The person he had taken for Julien turned his face toward them. It was not he; he was not there. As a matter of fact, he was in one of the upper galleries, just over the box in which Julie was hiding, and he was a hundred leagues from suspecting that by going down to the ground floor, he might at least have made an attempt to see her. Indeed, if he had known it, he would have kept his place. He was fully determined not to seek any more furtive opportunities to meet her. As an artist he was entitled to admission at the Français. He listened to Polyeucte meditatively, as a pious person listens to the sermon, and he went out before the end, fearing that his mother would sit up for him. As he passed through the vestibule, he was very much astonished to find himself face to face with Uncle Antoine. It was Uncle Antoine's invariable rule to go to bed at eight o'clock, and it was probable that he had never set foot in a theatre. Julien accosted him frankly; that was the better way, even though he were to be ill received.
"So you are found at last?" he said. "We were anxious about you."
"Who are we?" rejoined the uncle in a surly tone.
"Marcel and I."
"You are very good! Did you think I had gone to the Indies, pray, that you are so surprised to see me?"
"I confess that I hardly expected to see you here."