"His apartments
are over the coachhouse."
"Who lives on the other side?" asked the countess.
"No one as yet," said Adam; "I mean that apartment for our children
and their instructors."
"He didn't go to bed," said the countess, observing lights in
Thaddeus's rooms when the carriage had passed under the portico
supported by columns copied from those of the Tuileries, which
replaced a vulgar zinc awning painted in stripes like cloth.
The captain, in his dressing-gown with a pipe in his mouth, was
watching Clementine as she entered the vestibule. The day had been a
hard one for him. And here is the reason why: A great and terrible
emotion had taken possession of his heart on the day when Adam made
him go to the Opera to see and give his opinion on Mademoiselle du
Rouvre; and again when he saw her on the occasion of her marriage, and
recognized in her the woman whom a man is forced to love exclusively.
For this reason Paz strongly advised and promoted the long journey to
Italy and elsewhere after the marriage. At peace so long as Clementine
was away, his trial was renewed on the return of the happy household.
As he sat at his window on this memorable night, smoking his latakia
in a pipe of wild-cherry wood six feet long, given to him by Adam,
these are the thoughts that were passing through his mind:--
"I, and God, who will reward me for suffering in silence, alone know
how I love her! But how shall I manage to have neither her love nor
her dislike?"
And his thoughts travelled far on this strange theme.
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