"So you are not afraid of the cold?" she said laughingly.
"When ladies defy it, what would you think of me if I were afraid of it?"
"And then," said one of her companions, "if we had to pass the whole winter indoors, for fear of the cold, I fancy we should not be very fresh in the spring."
The ladies criticised the costumes and equipages of those who passed, and I put in a word or two now and then. But I was rather distraught, for I was dreaming of the happiness which I hoped for and expected, and I was counting the minutes. My plan was already formed. There are some excellent restaurants on the Champs-Élysées, with charming private rooms into which one can slip without being seen. If she refused to go to a restaurant, there were plenty of cabs; I had only to hire one with blinds and tell the driver to take us outside the walls.
I glanced at Armantine from time to time and motioned toward her two companions, murmuring under my breath words which she understood; for she whispered:
"Be patient a while."
At last, about three o'clock, Madame Gerbancourt said to her sister:
"We must be thinking about going home, for we are to have company to-day, you know.—Are you going soon, my dear?"
This question was addressed to Armantine, who replied:
"Madame Dauberny promised to join me here, and I shall wait for her. If Monsieur Rochebrune will honor me with his company till she comes, it will be very kind of him. It is putting his good nature to a severe test, but we have only one cavalier, and I must make the most of him."