Then he took his hat and went out again at once. For some time past he
had been keeping watch over her, following her about, knowing all her
movements. The hour he had been awaiting was at length at hand. He had
not been deceived by the tone in which she had said: "I would rather
stay at home."
He was very amiable towards her during the next few days. He even
appeared lively, which was not usual, and she said: "You are growing
quite nice again."
He dressed early on the Friday, in order to make some calls before going
to the governor's, he said. He started just before six, after kissing
his wife, and went and took a cab at the Place Notre Dame de Lorette. He
said to the driver: "Pull up in front of No. 17, Rue Fontaine, and stay
there till I tell you to go on again. Then drive to the Cock Pheasant
restaurant in the Rue Lafayette."
The cab started at a slow trot, and Du Roy drew down the blinds. As soon
as he was opposite the door he did not take his eyes off it. After
waiting ten minutes he saw Madeleine come out and go in the direction of
the outer boulevards. As soon as she had got far enough off he put his
head through the window, and said to the driver: "Go on." The cab
started again, and landed him in front of the Cock Pheasant, a
well-known middle-class restaurant. George went into the main
dining-room and ate slowly, looking at his watch from time to time. At
half-past seven, when he had finished his coffee, drank two liqueurs of
brandy, and slowly smoked a good cigar, he went out, hailed another cab
that was going by empty, and was driven to the Rue La Rochefoucauld. He
ascended without making any inquiry of the doorkeeper, to the third
story of the house he had told the man to drive to, and when a servant
opened the door to him, said: "Monsieur Guibert de Lorme is at home, is
he not?"
"Yes sir."
He was ushered into the drawing-room, where he waited for a few minutes.
Then a gentleman came in, tall, and with a military bearing, gray-haired
though still young, and wearing the ribbon of the Legion of Honor. Du
Roy bowed, and said: "As I foresaw, Mr. Commissionary, my wife is now
dining with her lover in the furnished rooms they have hired in the Rue
des Martyrs."