Waiting for this meal kept them all three sitting still for nearly an
hour, only uttering from time to time some needless commonplace remark,
as if there had been some danger, some mysterious danger in letting
silence endure too long, in letting the air congeal in this room where
death was prowling.
At length dinner was announced. The meal seemed interminable to Duroy.
They did not speak, but ate noiselessly, and then crumbled their bread
with their fingers. The man servant who waited upon them went to and fro
without the sound of his footsteps being heard, for as the creak of a
boot-sole irritated Charles, he wore list slippers. The harsh tick of a
wooden clock alone disturbed the calm with its mechanical and regular
sound.
As soon as dinner was over Duroy, on the plea of fatigue, retired to his
room, and leaning on the window-sill watched the full moon, in the midst
of the sky like an immense lamp, casting its cold gleam upon the white
walls of the villas, and scattering over the sea a soft and moving
dappled light. He strove to find some reason to justify a swift
departure, inventing plans, telegrams he was to receive, a recall from
Monsieur Walter.
But his resolves to fly appeared more difficult to realize on awakening
the next morning. Madame Forestier would not be taken in by his devices,
and he would lose by his cowardice all the benefit of his self-devotion.
He said to himself: "Bah! it is awkward; well so much the worse, there
must be unpleasant situations in life, and, besides, it will perhaps be
soon over."
It was a bright day, one of those bright Southern days that make the
heart feel light, and Duroy walked down to the sea, thinking that it
would be soon enough to see Forestier some time in course of the
afternoon. When he returned to lunch, the servant remarked, "Master has
already asked for you two or three times, sir. Will you please step up
to his room, sir?"
He went upstairs. Forestier appeared to be dozing in his armchair. His
wife was reading, stretched out on the sofa.
The invalid raised his head, and Duroy said, "Well, how do you feel? You
seem quite fresh this morning."
"Yes, I am better, I have recovered some of my strength. Get through
your lunch with Madeleine as soon as you can, for we are going out for
a drive."
As soon as she was alone with Duroy, the young wife said to him, "There,
to-day he thinks he is all right again. He has been making plans all the
morning. We are going to the Golfe Juan now to buy some pottery for our
rooms in Paris. He is determined to go out, but I am horribly afraid of
some mishap. He cannot bear the shaking of the drive."
When the landau arrived, Forestier came down stairs a step at a time,
supported by his servant. But as soon as he caught sight of the
carriage, he ordered the hood to be taken off. His wife opposed this,
saying, "You will catch cold. It is madness."