He kept the sheets for a long time between his fingers. They had the odour of orris; and there was in the form of the characters and the irregular spaces between the lines something suggestive, as it were, of a disorderly toilet, that fired his blood.
"Why should I not go?" said he to himself at length. "But if Madame Arnoux were to know about it? Ah! let her know! So much the better! and let her feel jealous over it! In that way I shall be avenged!"
CHAPTER X.
At the Races.
The Maréchale was prepared for his visit, and had been awaiting him.
"This is nice of you!" she said, fixing a glance of her fine eyes on his face, with an expression at the same time tender and mirthful.
When she had fastened her bonnet-strings, she sat down on the divan, and remained silent.
"Shall we go?" said Frederick. She looked at the clock on the mantelpiece.
"Oh, no! not before half-past one!" as if she had imposed this limit to her indecision.