Her meeting with Lieutenant de Loubersac and the sight of the false Vinson's arrest at the Saint Lazare station showed the terrified girl that things had gone mysteriously, hopelessly wrong!...
Without resources, Bobinette had pawned her few jewels. Then a letter from Vagualame had reached her. She had obeyed the instructions it contained.... That he had learned her address did not surprise her: she knew he never lost track of those it was to his interest to keep an eye on.
Before Vagualame's note reached her she had been worried and bored.
"I must make sure of shelter and protection if needs be," she reflected: "I will look up Geoffrey. We will meet at The Crying Calf, it is safe there!"
"Sit you down here, little Bobine!" suggested Hogshead Geoffrey.... "And now, what will you take?"
Bobinette ordered a gooseberry syrup.
"Quite the lady's drink," remarked mine host of the wine-shop with a humorous air.
Brother and sister exchanged confidences.... The good Geoffrey told of his fight, of situations obtained and lost, of fisticuff encounters, of quarrels and blows.... Bobinette went so far as to say that she was very happy, very much at her ease.
"Just imagine," said she: "I am companion to an old lady, a Russian, who in her time has had trouble with the police of her country, I think."
"The police? I don't like the police!" interrupted her brother.