He smiled, affected himself, considering her feminine emotion
charming--the unaffected emotion of a poor little woman whom every
sensation overwhelms. And he embraced her passionately, stammering:
"My little Lise, you are exquisite."
What a charming love affair, short-lived and dainty, it had been and
over all too quickly, cut short in the midst of its ardor by this old
brute of a baron, who had carried off his wife, and never let any one
see her afterward.
Lormerin had forgotten, in fact, at the end of two or three months.
One woman drives out another so quickly in Paris, when one is a
bachelor! No matter; he had kept a little altar for her in his heart,
for he had loved her alone! He assured himself now that this was so.
He rose, and said aloud: "Certainly, I will go and dine with her this
evening!"
And instinctively he turned toward the mirror to inspect himself from
head to foot. He reflected: "She must look very old, older than I
look." And he felt gratified at the thought of showing himself to her
still handsome, still fresh, of astonishing her, perhaps of filling
her with emotion, and making her regret those bygone days so far, far
distant!
He turned his attention to the other letters. They were of no
importance.
The whole day he kept thinking of this ghost of other days. What was
she like now? How strange it was to meet in this way after twenty-five
years! But would he recognize her?
He made his toilet with feminine coquetry, put on a white waistcoat,
which suited him better with the coat than a black one, sent for the
hairdresser to give him a finishing touch with the curling iron, for
he had preserved his hair, and started very early in order to show his
eagerness to see her.
The first thing he saw on entering a pretty drawing-room newly
furnished was his own portrait, an old faded photograph, dating from
the days when he was a beau, hanging on the wall in an antique silk
frame.