"Why this distrust, as if I were a wretch capable of abusing——"
"Oh! no!—--"
"If I had only a proof!—--"
"What proof?"
"The proof that a person might give to the first comer—what you have granted to myself!"
And he recalled to her recollection how, on one occasion, they had gone out together, on a winter's twilight, when there was a fog. This seemed now a long time ago. What, then, was to prevent her from showing herself on his arm before the whole world without any fear on her part, and without any mental reservation on his, not having anyone around them who could importune them?
"Be it so!" she said, with a promptness of decision that at first astonished Frederick.
But he replied, in a lively fashion:
"Would you like me to wait at the corner of the Rue Tronchet and the Rue de la Ferme?"
"Good heavens, my friend!" faltered Madame Arnoux.