“That’s a matter of course,” I said.
“He is rich and very handsome. He wishes to take us himself to Versailles, and promises to procure some employment for me.”
“I congratulate you. Who is he?”
“I do not know.”
I placed in an envelope the papers she had entrusted to me, and I handed them to him to return to his sister. I then went out. When I came home towards three o’clock, the landlady gave me a letter which had been left for me by Mdlle. Vesian, who had left the hotel.
I went to my room, opened the letter, and read the following lines:
“I return the money you have lent me with my best thanks. The Count de Narbonne feels interested in me, and wishes to assist me and my brother. I shall inform you of everything, of the house in which he wishes me to go and live, where he promises to supply me all I want. Your friendship is very dear to me, and I entreat you not to forget me. My brother remains at the hotel, and my room belongs to me for the month. I have paid everything.”
“Here is,” said I to myself, “a second Lucie de Pasean, and I am a second time the dupe of my foolish delicacy, for I feel certain that the count will not make her happy. But I wash my hands of it all.”
I went to the Theatre Francais in the evening, and enquired about Narbonne. The first person I spoke to told me,
“He is the son of a wealthy man, but a great libertine and up to his neck in debts.”