He drew closer to Clotilde, and whispered. "When shall we see one another again?"
"To-morrow, if you like."
"Yes, to-morrow at two o'clock."
"Two o'clock."
He rose to take leave, and then stammered, with some embarrassment: "You know I shall take on the rooms in the Rue de Constantinople myself. I mean it. A nice thing for the rent to be paid by you."
It was she who kissed his hands adoringly, murmuring: "Do as you like. It is enough for me to have kept them for us to meet again there."
Du Roy went away, his soul filled with satisfaction. As he passed by a photographer's, the portrait of a tall woman with large eyes reminded him of Madame Walter. "All the same," he said to himself, "she must be still worth looking at. How is it that I never noticed it? I want to see how she will receive me on Thursday?"
He rubbed his hands as he walked along with secret pleasure, the pleasure of success in every shape, the egotistical joy of the clever man who is successful, the subtle pleasure made up of flattered vanity and satisfied sensuality conferred by woman's affection.
On the Thursday he said to Madeleine: "Are you not coming to the assault-at-arms at Rival's?"
"No. It would not interest me. I shall go to the Chamber of Deputies."