"Where are we going so fast?" cried Beau Arthur, taking Gustave's hand. "What has happened? Our countenance is not so cheerful and happy as it was the last time? Can it be that anything has happened to interrupt the course of our loves?"
"My friend," replied Gustave, with a sigh, "there has been a great change, indeed, in my affairs since we last met. There is to be no marriage; the love affair is at an end. Fanny has betrayed me again. Ah! I ought to have expected it! But, no; it is impossible to conceive such perfidy in a woman who looks at us with a smiling face, who tells us that she loves us!"
"What's that you say, my boy? The little widow has slipped out of your hand again? Nonsense, that can't be so!"
"It's the truth. She is going to marry the Comte de la Bérinière, an old man, but very rich. She is to be a countess--she has no further use for me."
"Why, this is perfectly frightful! A woman doesn't play skittles like that with an honest man's heart! And you haven't killed your rival?"
"No; for that wouldn't make Fanny love me any more. But I am going away; I don't propose to be here again, as I was at her first wedding. No, indeed; once was enough."
"To England and Scotland; but I shall not be away so long."
"Sapristi! my dear fellow, don't go away; the affair can be fixed up, perhaps."
"No, no, it's all over, all over! Fanny will never be mine. Adieu, my friend! it's almost train time. Au revoir!"
Gustave hurried away, and left Cherami standing there bewildered by his sudden departure. He seemed lost in thought for a moment, then tapped his leg with his switch and said:
"Morbleu! my friend Gustave unhappy! the woman he loves snatched away from him a second time! and I am to endure it! I, his Pylades, to whom he loans money without taking account of it!--No, par la sambleu! I will not endure it. Ah! my little widow! you play fast and loose with a fine fellow like that! You think that you can make fools of people in that way! But, patience! I am on hand, and I have my cue!"
About noon the next day, Cherami was walking in front of Madame Monléard's house.
"I don't know where he perches--this Comte de la Bérinière, whom Gustave told me about yesterday; but by doing sentry duty in front of this house, I can't fail to find out; this count will undoubtedly come to pay his respects to the little woman he's going to marry; he's rich, he will come in his carriage, and I am an awkward fellow if I can't learn the master's address from a servant."