“I don’t know at all. Besides, you might as well try to catch up with a deer as with him.”
“That’s true. I’d better wait for him. When will he be in?”
“Not before ten. I can tell you that it’s not once a year that he goes out like this in the morning.”
“But, Madeleine, Jeanne will be here by ten!”
“Oh, is Jeanne her name?”
“Yes. Monsieur Charnot will be here, too. And my uncle, whom I was to have prepared for their visit, will know nothing about it, nor even that I slept last night beneath his roof.”
“To tell the truth, Monsieur Fabien, I don’t think you’ve managed well. Still, there is Dame Fortune, who often doesn’t put in her word till the last moment.”
“Entreat her for me, Madeleine, my dear.”
But Dame Fortune was deaf to prayers. My uncle did not return, and I could find no fresh expedient. As I made my way, vexed and unhappy, to the station, I kept asking myself the question that I had been turning over in vain for the last hour:
“I have said nothing to Monsieur Mouillard. Had I better say anything now to Monsieur Charnot?”