“Yes, madame. He said that you will get me out of my difficulty better than himself, but I did not dare, I did not wish to—you understand.”
She rose, saying: “It will be delightful to work in collaboration with you like that. I am charmed at the notion. Come, sit down in my place, for they know my handwriting at the office. And we will knock you off an article; oh, but a good one.”
He sat down, took a pen, spread a sheet of paper before him, and waited.
Madame Forestier, standing by, watched him make these preparations, then took a cigarette from the mantelshelf, and lit it.
“I cannot work without smoking,” said she. “Come, what are you going to say?”
He lifted his head towards her with astonishment.
“But that is just what I don’t know, since it is that I came to see you about.”
She replied: “Oh, I will put it in order for you. I will make the sauce, but then I want the materials of the dish.”
He remained embarrassed before her. At length he said, hesitatingly: “I should like to relate my journey, then, from the beginning.”
Then she sat down before him on the other side of the table, and looking him in the eyes:
“Well, tell it me first; for myself alone, you understand, slowly and without forgetting anything, and I will select what is to be used of it.”
But as he did not know where to commence, she began to question him as a priest would have done in the confessional, putting precise questions