The three men exchanged rapid glances, and Edmond replied:
“What could have happened to us?”
“Mon Dieu! I don’t know—but I was terribly depressed last night, knowing that you were there.”
“A single word from you, and I would not have gone!”
“But I should not have dared to say it.”
“That is a pity!” thought Freluchon.
While the hours seemed so short in Honorine’s modest abode, the wealthy proprietress of Goldfish Villa waited impatiently, with her eyes fastened on a clock, for the moment when she was to meet her brother.
At last the clock struck six, and Thélénie, hastening across the garden and the little park, opened a gate leading into a lonely path, where she had arranged to meet Croque.
She soon saw approaching her a man in a canvas jacket and full duck trousers, with his face half-hidden by a sort of coal-burner’s hat, and blackened and reddened in spots. But she recognized Croque by the scar on his cheek.
“This is excellent; you are unrecognizable,” said Thélénie; “besides, there is no one hereabout who knows you very well. But how did you manage to obtain these clothes?”