"Ah! and where does he live?"
"At--at--"
Forestier began to laugh. "Number ought, Nowhere Street, eh? I know that
gentleman, my dear fellow. If you want twenty francs, I have still that
much at your service, but no more."
Duroy took the offered louis. Then he went from door to door among the
people he knew, and wound up by having collected at about five o'clock
the sum of eighty francs. And he still needed two hundred more; he made
up his mind, and keeping for himself what he had thus gleaned, murmured:
"Bah! I am not going to put myself out for that cat. I will pay her when
I can."
For a fortnight he lived regularly, economically, and chastely, his mind
filled with energetic resolves. Then he was seized with a strong longing
for love. It seemed to him that several years had passed since he last
clasped a woman in his arms, and like the sailor who goes wild on seeing
land, every passing petticoat made him quiver. So he went one evening
to the Folies Bergere in the hope of finding Rachel. He caught sight of
her indeed, directly he entered, for she scarcely went elsewhere, and
went up to her smiling with outstretched hand. But she merely looked him
down from head to foot, saying: "What do you want with me?"