“Very good, lieutenant. We will be all settled there to-morrow. No wagons to pay for moving—that’s another saving.”
Bertrand was well pleased to stay in the house with his friend Schtrack; and the next morning, as soon as Dalville had gone out, he and the concierge carried the furniture from the first floor to the fifth. But as two small rooms would not contain the furniture that filled six large ones, he left in the old apartment all that he considered superfluous, and the new tenant purchased it, the proceeds serving to restock Bertrand’s cash-box at an opportune moment.
On returning home, Auguste, from long habit, stopped on the first floor. He rang, and waited in vain for Bertrand to admit him; then he remembered that he no longer lived there, and went on upstairs; but, in spite of himself, a sigh escaped him as he left his former apartment behind; and when he entered his new abode, the cramped space and the prospect of roofs from all the windows, extorted another sigh from his breast. We are men before we are philosophers, and the knowledge that we owe to the arguments of reason does not win an easy victory over our natural inclinations.
However, Auguste did his best to smile when Bertrand said to him:
“We shall be very comfortable here, lieutenant; shan’t we? The rooms are small, but we have everything under our hand. And what’s the use of having so many useless rooms? For, now that we’re not rich any more, almost nobody comes to see us. If we want to exercise, we can go out. But the air’s better here than it is on the first floor. And the view! Why, we overlook all the houses round.”
“Yes, this is all that we need,” Dalville replied; and Bertrand, observing that his master’s smile was a little forced, made haste to add:
“I have already noticed, at that window in the roof over there, a very good-looking young girl.”
“Where? where?” cried Auguste, running to the window.
“See, close by us, where the window is open. We can look right into her room, which is very convenient. And there’s the girl I saw just now. She has evidently noticed that she has a new neighbor, and she isn’t sorry to be looked at.”
“She is really very good-looking: a good figure, and a saucy expression, eh, Bertrand?”