"I will read it later; but I see that Albert did really send you to me. What a harebrained performance! it is characteristic of him! Well, where are we to wait for him?"
"I will escort you. Will you deign to accept my arm?"
"I must. Oh! this is too absurd; but I can't help laughing at the idea. Ha! ha! what a madman that Albert is!"
Madame Plays took Tobie's arm, and leaned heavily upon it, because it tired her to walk; but her cavalier did not complain; he mistook for a tender pressure what was simply the result of the lady's embonpoint, and, in his turn, he began thus early to press amorously to his side the arm that was passed through his.
Pigeonnier led Madame Plays toward the Champs-Élysées. He knew that he would find in that direction an abundance of restaurants with private dining-rooms. It was so late, that the lady had surely dined; and he was not sorry for that, because he would have to regale her with ices or punch only, which were much less expensive; he had already considered all these little details. He preferred not to spend the twelve francs he had obtained on his coat, for he wanted to keep something with which to play bouillotte, hoping to win enough at that game to pay for his share of the dinner.
"Are you taking me to the Circus?" asked Madame Plays, when she saw that they were going toward the Champs-Élysées.
"No. That isn't where Albert is to meet us, but at a nice little restaurant over yonder."
"A restaurant! but I have dined!"
"Really—you have dined? Ah! that's a pity; however, we can take something all the same."
"You act as if you weren't certain of the place where Albert is to meet us."