“Shall we make a positive appointment for a particular day and hour?” inquired the count; “only let me warn you that I am proverbial for my punctilious exactitude in keeping my engagements.”
“Day for day, hour for hour,” said Albert; “that will suit me to a dot.”
“So be it, then,” replied the count, and extending his hand towards a calendar, suspended near the chimneypiece, he said, “today is the 21st of February;” and drawing out his watch, added, “it is exactly half-past ten o’clock. Now promise me to remember this, and expect me the 21st of May at the same hour in the forenoon.”
“Capital!” exclaimed Albert; “your breakfast shall be waiting.”
“Where do you live?”
“ No. 27, Rue du Helder.”
“Have you bachelor’s apartments there? I hope my coming will not put you to any inconvenience.”
“I reside in my father’s house, but occupy a pavilion at the farther side of the courtyard, entirely separated from the main building.”
“Quite sufficient,” replied the count, as, taking out his tablets, he wrote down “ No. 27, Rue du Helder, 21st May, half-past ten in the morning.”
“Now then,” said the count, returning his tablets to his pocket, “make yourself perfectly easy; the hand of your timepiece will not be more accurate in marking the time than myself.”
“Shall I see you again ere my departure?” asked Albert.
“That depends; when do you leave?”