CHAPTER XVIII
A COLD DOUCHE
How my heart beat when I set forth on my expedition!
On the way from my dwelling to Bessy's lodgings my ill fate brought me face to face with all the veteran actresses of the National Theatre, and they all stopped me and asked where I was going. They all remarked that I was very stylishly got up, and they all shook their fingers at me, and said: "Fie, fie! you straw-widower!"
The devil must really have been in me to make me take the trouble to have my hair so prettily frizzled.
I was just about to dash hastily up the staircase of Bessy's dwelling, when whom should I run into but Tóni Sági. It only needed that. He came from the same town as I did, was a common friend of all my friends, and was about as reticent of news as a town-crier.
"Your servant, friend! Why, you're quite a stranger. I've just come from Bessy. The young lady is in a very bad humour. She as good as pitched me out of doors. She must be expecting some one. Perhaps you are the very man, eh?"
It was all up with me now! To-morrow every newspaper in the town will report my visit here. For "quod licet bovi, non licet Jovi."
If I were to turn back now, it would only make matters worse.