“Good! The journey only costs twenty louis, but I will give you twenty-five.”
“Hand them over.”
“Patience. Give me pens, ink and paper.”
“What are you going to write?”
“Bills of exchange on Lyons, Turin, Genoa, Florence, and Rome. Your place will be paid as far as Lyons, and there you will be able to get five louis, and the same sum in the other towns, but as long as you stay in Paris not one single farthing will I give you. I am staying at the ‘Hotel Montmorenci;’ that’s all you need know about me.”
I then bade farewell to my brother and his wife, telling them that we should meet again. Checco, as we called my brother, told me he would send on the abbé’s trunk the day following, and I bade him do so by all means.
The next day trunk and abbé came together. I did not even look at him, but after I had seen that a room had been assigned to him, I called out to the landlord that I would be answerable for the abbé’s board and lodging for three days, and not a moment more. The abbé tried to speak to me, but I sternly declined to have anything to say to him, strictly forbidding Clairmont to admit him to my apartments.
When I went to Madame du Rumain’s, the porter said,—
“Sir, everybody is still asleep, but who are you? I have instructions.”
“I am the Chevalier de Seingalt.”