n he yielded, thinking that,
after all, it was fair. And when she had gone, he murmured, rubbing his
hands, and without seeking in the depths of his heart whence the opinion
came on that occasion: "She is very nice."

He received, a few days later, another telegram running thus: "My
husband returns to-night, after six weeks' inspection, so we shall have
a week off. What a bore, darling.--Clo."

Duroy felt astounded. He had really lost all idea of her being married.
But here was a man whose face he would have liked to see just once, in
order to know him. He patiently awaited the husband's departure, but he
passed two evenings at the Folies Bergere, which wound up with Rachel.

Then one morning came a fresh telegram: "To-day at five.--Clo."

They both arrived at the meeting-place before the time. She threw
herself into his arms with an outburst of passion, and kissed him all
over the face, and then said: "If you like, when we have loved one
another a great deal, you shall take me to dinner somewhere. I have kept

myself disengaged."

It was at the beginning of the month, and although his salary was long
since drawn in advance, and he lived from day to day upon money gleaned
on every side, Duroy happened to be in funds, and was pleased at the
opportunity of spending something upon her, so he replied: "Yes,
darling, wherever you like."

They started off, therefore, at about seven, and gained the outer
boulevards. She leaned closely against him, and whispered in his ear:
"If you only knew how pleased I am to walk out on your arm; how I love
to feel you beside me."

He said: "Would you like to go to Pere Lathuile's?"

"Oh, no, it is too swell. I should like something funny, out of the way!
a restaurant that shopmen and work-girls go to. I adore dining at a
country inn. Oh! if we only had been able to go into the country."

As he knew nothing of the kind in the neighborhood, they wandered along
the boulevard, and ended by going into a wine-shop where there was a
dining-room. She had seen through the window two bareheaded girls
seated at tables with two soldiers. Three cab-drivers were dining at the
further end of the long and narrow room, and an individual impossible to
classify under any calling was smoking, stretched on a chair, with his
legs stuck out in front of him, his hands in the waist-band of his
trousers, and his head thrown back over the top bar. His jacket was a
museum of stains, and in his swollen pocke