"This acquaintance will be very agreeable to me, and will vary the monotony of our stay at Grenoble. Those excellent people think I am a nobleman; there's no great harm in that, and it may well be that I have the air of one. Madame Chambertin still has a vivacious glance; her husband has excellent wine and an excellent table. That big ironmaster's as rich as Crœsus, and it seems that he likes a little game. Morbleu! if only I was still cashier! what a chance to repair our losses! I am sure that he hasn't an idea of backgammon. Such a man as that wouldn't notice a loss of five or six thousand francs. And Frédéric goes off and leaves us without a sou; passes his time no one knows where. I simply must find out what he does every day; I must watch over him, as poor Ménard here doesn't dare to say a word to him. A fine guardian monsieur le comte sent with him!"
It was very late when they reached Grenoble. Ménard woke up to alight from the carriage. When Dubourg saw old Lunel before him, hat in hand, he instinctively felt in his pockets; but finding nothing in any of them, he put his hand under Lunel's chin and patted his cheek, saying:
"All right, Lunel; good-night, my fine fellow! I am content with you."
Whereupon the old groom turned on his heel, and muttered all the way home:
"That was a fine pourboire the Pole gave me!"
XIV
A VISIT TO THE FOREST
When Dubourg and Ménard woke on the morning after their dinner at Allevard, Frédéric had been gone a long while.
"We will wait till to-night," said Dubourg, "and then we will speak to him."
"Yes, monsieur le baron," said Ménard; "you will speak to him."
But we have seen that Frédéric remained with Sister Anne very late every day, until he had decided to remain with her altogether. It was four leagues from Grenoble to Vizille; the horse Frédéric took in the morning, at random, went but little better in the evening, although he had rested all day; for inn horses are rarely good saddle horses. So that the beast sometimes took three hours to return from Vizille; and Frédéric did not urge him, for he was not then on his way to Sister Anne.