"He's no fool; he has had a good education, and he knows the world."
"He is all the more reprehensible for having allowed himself to sink so low! For he seems to me to be always in search of a dinner. However, as you are going away again for some time, I trust that your relations with the fellow will be entirely broken off."
Gustave hastened the preparations for his journey; but, being obliged to wait for certain letters which his uncle desired to give him for his correspondents, he was not ready to leave Paris until the following Thursday evening. He desired to see Adolphine once more before he went; she had always been so kind and affectionate to him, that it seemed to him that it would be ungracious to leave Paris again without bidding her adieu. But the fear of another meeting with Fanny held him back. He suddenly remembered, however, that that was the day of the grand affair to which Madame Monléard had invited him.
"Surely," he said to himself, "Fanny has too much to do at home to-day, to find time to go to her sister's. So that I can call on Adolphine with no fear of meeting her whose presence causes me more pain than pleasure now."
Adolphine was at home, engaged in preparations for the ball; for although she anticipated no pleasure at her sister's magnificent function, she could not do otherwise than go. She was looking with an indifferent air at a lovely ball gown which her father had given her, and which would have delighted most young women of her age beyond measure.
"But," thought Adolphine, "what do I care whether people think me pretty? There will be nobody at the ball whom I care to please. Ah! if he were going! But he was wise to refuse; he could not, ought not to go."
Madeleine noiselessly opened the door, and said:
"Mamzelle, here's the young man who came the other day—the one who's so good-looking, and seems so sad-like."
"Monsieur Gustave?"
"Yes, that Monsieur Gustave, who was so scared by your sister the other time, that he went right away."