"Then I might ask her to do something for me?"
"That's your right."
"Very good. I'll go up to Mademoiselle Georgette's."
"Third floor, monsieur."
"Oh! I know."
"Yes, but there's two or three doors; it's the one where you see a toothbrush instead of a tassel on the bell cord."
"I'll remember."
As he mounted the stairs, Dupont said to himself:
"What in the devil can I have her embroider? Ah! a cravat! I believe they're not in fashion, men don't wear embroidered cravats now; but, no matter, I'll tell her it's the fashion at Brives-la-Gaillarde; and, after all, what does she care, so long as I give her work?"
He reached the third landing, where there were several doors; but he discovered the little toothbrush hanging at the end of a bell cord, and he boldly pulled it.