"No--not this time, no," said Germinie, rising from the foot of
Jupillon's bed where she was sitting. "There's no way. Why, you know
perfectly well that I haven't a sou--anything you can call a sou! You've
seen the stockings I wear, haven't you?"
She lifted her skirt and showed him her stockings, all full of holes and
tied together with strings. "I haven't a change of anything. Money? Why,
I didn't even have enough to give mademoiselle a few flowers on her
birthday. I bought her a bunch of violets for a sou! Oh! yes, money,
indeed! That last twenty francs--do you know where I got them? I took
them out of mademoiselle's box! I've put them back. But that's done
with. I don't want any more of that kind of thing. It will do for once.
Where do you expect me to get money now, just tell me that, will you?
You can't pawn your skin at the Mont-de-Piete--unless!----But as to
doing anything of that sort again, never in my life! Whatever else you
choose, but no stealing! I won't do it again. Oh! I know very well what
you will do. So much the worse!"
"Well! have you worked yourself up enough?" said Jupillon. "If you'd
told me that about the twenty francs, do you suppose I'd have taken it?
I didn't suppose you were as hard up as all that. I saw that you went on
as usual. I fancied it wouldn't put you out to lend me a twenty-franc
piece, and I'd have returned it in a week or two with the others. But
you don't say anything? Oh! well, I'm done, I won't ask you for any
more. But that's no reason we should quarrel, as I can see." And he
added, with an indefinable glance at Germinie: "Till Thursday, eh?"
"Till Thursday!" said Germinie, desperately. She longed to throw herself
into Jupillon's arms, to ask his pardon for her poverty, to say to him:
"You see, I can't do it!"
She repeated: "Till Thursday!" and took her leave.
When, on Thursday, she knocked at the door of Jupillon's apartment on
the ground floor, she thought she heard a man's hurried step at the
other end of the room. The door opened; before her stood Jupillon's
cousin with her hair in a net, wearing a red jacket and slippers, and
with the costume and bearing of a woman who is at home in a man's house.
Her belongings were tossed about here and there: Germinie saw them on
the chairs she had paid for.
"Whom does madame wish to see?" demanded the cousin, impudently.
"Monsieur Jupillon?"
"He has gone out."
"I'll wait for him," said Germinie, and she attempted to enter the other
room.
"You'll wait at the porter's lodge then;" and the cousin barred the way.
"When will he return?"
"When the hens have teeth," said the girl, seriously, and shut the door
in her face.
"Well! this is just what I expected of him," said Germinie to herself,
as she walked along the street. The pavement seemed to give way beneath
her trembling legs.