"Well?" said Edward.
"The young woman opened the pocketbook. I was not inquisitive enough to look at what she was counting, but I think it was banknotes."
"She seemed delighted, and she said to me, with a most amiable expression: 'Please inform your master that if he can come up to-night, between eleven o'clock and twelve, it will give me great pleasure. I wish to thank him in person.'"
"Bravo! at last! tandem! denique tandem felix! Ah! I knew that I should attain my ends! And those fellows won't have the laugh on me!"
The young man was insanely hilarious. He instantly demanded cigarettes, which he had neglected utterly since he had had something to occupy his mind; then he went out to try to kill time.
He returned to his apartment at eleven o'clock, but had the patience to wait until midnight, so that he might not meet anyone in the hall. Then he took a candle, and ran quickly up the two flights. He had learned from Lépinette which was Georgette's door: it was the last on the right; there was no possibility of a mistake. The viscount soon found the door, and saw that the key was in the lock.
"She thinks of everything!" he said to himself; "there is no need of knocking, and I don't have to wait on the landing; it's well done of her."
He softly opened the door and entered the room, where it was absolutely dark.
"So she has gone to bed already!" thought the viscount, walking toward the bed, which was at the back of the room. He put forward his light: no one; the bed was empty and had not been slept in. Utterly at sea, the young man looked in all directions; at last, he discovered on a table near the fireplace all the dry goods he had sent to Georgette a second time; nothing was missing, not even the bonnet; but the little white petticoat was laid on a piece of material, and on the petticoat was a letter addressed to Monsieur le Vicomte Edward de Sommerston.