“I will call upon the Countess Claudieuse this morning.”
At eight o’clock, he left the house, dressed more carefully than usual,
and told the servant that he did not wish to be waited for if he should
not be back for breakfast.
He went first to the court-house, hoping to meet the clerk there. He
was not disappointed. The waiting-rooms were quite deserted yet; but
Mechinet was already at work in his office, writing with the feverish
haste of a man who has to pay for a piece of property that he wants to
call his own.