This was like a thunderclap. However, she replied quite naturally⁠—

“Ah! no doubt she forgot my name.”

“But perhaps,” said the doctor, “there are several Demoiselles Lempereur at Rouen who are music-mistresses.”

“Possibly!” Then quickly⁠—“But I have my receipts here. See!”

And she went to the writing-table, ransacked all the drawers, rummaged the papers, and at last lost her head so completely that Charles earnestly begged her not to take so much trouble about those wretched receipts.

“Oh, I will find them,” she said.

And, in fact, on the following Friday, as Charles was putting on one of his boots in the dark cabinet where his clothes were kept, he felt a piece of paper between the leather and his sock. He took it out and read⁠—