"That suits me," said Tristouse, "for I love to pass for that which I am not. We leave tomorrow."
[XV. VOYAGE]
Croniamantal went perfectly mad upon hearing of the departure of Tristouse. But at this time he began to become famous, and as his poetical repute waxed so did his vogue as a dramatist.
The theatres played his plays and the crowd applauded his name, but at the same moment the enemies of poets and poetry were increasing in number and growing in audacious hatred.
He only became more and more sorrowful, his soul shrinking within his enfeebled body.
When he learned of the departure of Tristouse he did not protest, but simply asked the concierge if she knew the destination of the voyage.
"All that I know," said the woman, "is that she has gone to Central Europe."
"Very well," said Croniamantal, and returning to his quarters he gathered up the several thousand francs he still possessed and took the train for Germany at the Gare du Nord.
On the following day, Christmas eve, the train was engulfed in the enormous terminal of Cologne. Croniamantal, carrying a little valise, descended last from his third-class coach.