In due time, Plumard reached the bath keeper's house.
It was dark and the shopkeepers were beginning to close their doors.
The old trooper of Henri IV sat in his doorway, smoking his pipe.
The clerk walked up and down the street several times; at last he decided to accost Landry, saying to himself:
"It matters little whether I give the plume to the father or the mother. I prefer to address myself to the father; men understand each other better. I must be shrewd and subtle.—Ah! good evening, Master Landry! How are you this evening? You are smoking, I see; that is a pleasant pastime. I should like very much to smoke, if it did not make me sick and make my head ache so that I can't see. I have an uncle who went into consumption from smoking a pipe, and two cousins who were made insane!—Ah! how pleasant it is to smoke!—The skies are dark to-night, and I am afraid we shall have a storm to-morrow; that would be a disappointment to me. I have a longing to take a ride in a chaise à porteurs, or a brouette—the new invention, you know? it is very convenient, and very fashionable in the best society; brouettes cost only sixteen sous for the trip, or eighteen by the hour; while the chaise à porteurs costs thirty sous for the trip. That is dear—yes, it's very dear! But how comfortable it must be in one!—Still, it's very nice in a brouette!"
Landry listened tranquilly to this outflow of words, eying the young clerk the while; when it was at an end, he answered coldly:
"As I don't know you, and as it makes no difference to me whether you ride in a chaise or in a brouette, I am going to bed. Good-night!"
"Oh! stay a moment! You are in a terrible hurry. You do not recognize me, because it is beginning to grow dark, but I am one of your best customers; I bathe as many as fifteen times a week!—But so many people come to your place that you can't recognize all their faces!"
"That is possible! In that case, excuse me; but I am tired, and I am going to bed."
"One moment more, I beg!—Does your charming daughter also enjoy perfect health, like her worthy father?"