Toward three o’clock he brushed his hat, left the office, and jumped into a cab that was passing, and half an hour later he hurried through the market garden of Number 12, Rue de la Santé, and knocked tremblingly at Madame Blouet’s door. Claudette answered the knock, and on seeing the deputy governor, she started and blushed.
“Grandmother is out,” she said, “but she will soon be home and will be so glad to see you.”
“I have come to see, not your grandmother, but yourself, Mademoiselle Claudette,” he returned.
“Me?” she exclaimed anxiously, and he repeated, “Yes, you,” in an abrupt tone, and then his throat seemed to close and he could hardly speak.
“You are going away next month?” he asked at last.
The girl nodded assent.
“Are you not sorry to leave Paris?”
“Yes indeed I am. It grieves me to think of it, but then, this position is a fortune to us, and grandmother will be able to live in peace for the rest of her days.”
“Suppose I should offer you the means of remaining in Paris, at the same time assuring comfort to Madame Blouet?”
“Oh, sir!” exclaimed the young girl, her face brightening.