We left the floor and I took my coat off a hanger on the wall and put it on. Brett stood by the bar. Cohn was talking to her. I stopped at the bar and asked them for an envelope. The patronne found one. I took a fifty-franc note from my pocket, put it in the envelope, sealed it, and handed it to the patronne.
“If the girl I came with asks for me, will you give her this?” I said. “If she goes out with one of those gentlemen, will you save this for me?”
“ C’est entendu, Monsieur ,” the patronne said. “You go now? So early?”
“Yes,” I said.
We started out the door. Cohn was still talking to Brett. She said good night and took my arm. “Good night, Cohn,” I said. Outside in the street we looked for a taxi.
“You’re going to lose your fifty francs,” Brett said.
“Oh, yes.”
“No taxis.”
“We could walk up to the Pantheon and get one.”
“Come on and we’ll get a drink in the pub next door and send for one.”
“You wouldn’t walk across the street.”
“Not if I could help it.”
We went into the next bar and I sent a waiter for a taxi.
“Well,” I said, “we’re out away from them.”