Soon they left the avenue and were lost in a green alley. Then a sudden twilight seemed to have closed down on me, an infinite sadness swelled in my heart. I closed my eyes, and—God forgive my weakness, but the tears came.
“Hallo! What part do you intend me to play in all this?” said Lampron behind me.
“‘What part’?”
“Yes. It’s an odd notion to invite me to your trysting-place.”
“Trysting-place? I haven’t one.”
“You mean to tell me, perhaps, that you came here by chance?”
“Certainly.”
“And chanced upon the very moment and the spot where she was passing?”
“Do you want a proof? That young lady is Mademoiselle Charnot.”
“Well?”