The next day, after dinner, Cherami returned to Rue Saint-Denis, saying to himself:
"I know how far I went yesterday, and where I must begin to-day. I have something very amusing to ask for. How I'll make them laugh! Oh! I propose that not even the forewomen shall succeed in keeping a serious face. They will fancy they're at the Palais-Royal when Grassot plays La Garde-Malade, or Le Vieux Loup de Mer."
But, since the preceding night, certain things had happened in Rue Saint-Denis which our grisette-hunter could not divine.
In a quarter so wholly given over to business, there are brokers and under-clerks who go about almost every morning inquiring as to the course of prices, articles most in demand, etc.; this is commonly called faire la place. Now, when one of these brokers entered a certain feather-shop, the girls asked him laughingly:
"Have you brought us some children's caps? we had a call for some last night."
"Caps? you are joking!"
"No, indeed!"
And thereupon they told him about their customer of the night before. The story made the broker laugh, and that was the end of it. But at another shop they told him about a man who had wanted to buy a coat.
"This is a strange thing!" he exclaimed; "over yonder, somebody asked for a child's cap. Can it be the same man?"