"Ah! don't tell me that! I should hate myself."
"It is so, I assure you."
"Never! never! I will not have it. I forbid him to do so."
"Just what your admirer said. You are both mad. Lucien was just explaining one of your compositions to us. The shy boy you met just now got up, trembling with anger, and forbade him to mention your name. Think of it!… Fortunately I was there. I laughed it off: Lucien did the same: and the boy was utterly confused and relapsed into silence: and in the end he apologized."
"Poor boy!" said Christophe.
He was touched by it.
"Where did he go?" he asked, without listening to Madame Roussin, who had already begun to talk about something else.
He went to look for him. But his unknown friend had disappeared. Christophe returned to Madame Roussin:
"Tell me, what is his name?"
"Who?" she asked.