One morning, about nine o'clock, it occurred to him to go and walk through the street where Madame Dermont lived.
"I won't go up to her rooms," he said to himself, "for she's not an early riser, and I might disturb her in her sleep; but I may see her servant come out, and I can give her the bouquet I am going to buy for her mistress. Nathalie will find it by her side when she wakes, and she'll surmise from whom it comes."
He dressed hurriedly, and bought a lovely bouquet on Passage Verdeau. Then he walked to Rue de Paradis-Poissonnière, to Madame Dermont's house, looked up at the windows, where all the curtains were still drawn, and strolled along the street, after looking at his watch: it was half-past nine. That was too early for a call on Nathalie, but he hoped that the servant would come out.
Ten minutes passed, and Madame Dermont's servant did not appear. Adhémar was tired of pacing the street with his flowers in his hand, and had almost concluded to go up, thinking that he could ring very softly, to avoid waking her, when he saw a cab coming rapidly toward him. It slackened its pace as it approached Madame Dermont's house. Adhémar, without pausing to weigh his reasons for so doing, stepped aside; something told him that he was interested in that cab, and he determined to see who alighted from it.
It stopped in front of Nathalie's door; a young woman alighted, paid the driver, and hurried into the house. But Adhémar had recognized her; he could not be mistaken; he had seen her features, he had recognized her dress, and the hat she wore when she went out in the morning: it was she, it was Nathalie! For an instant Adhémar thought of running after her and shouting:
"Where have you been?"
But he reflected that she might lie to him again; and a better plan occurred to him. The cab was still there, the driver preparing to return to his box. Adhémar opened the door, jumped in, and, taking ten francs from his pocket, placed them in the cabman's hand as he asked him where he wished to go.
The man was amazed at sight of the ten francs which his new passenger gave him even before hiring him.
"Oh! it's to be a long trip, eh? You want to go into the country, I take it, bourgeois?"
"The ten francs are to pay you for answering my questions briefly: a lady has just got out of your cab?"