And with that
she kissed him and wiped away his tears.
"Now just listen! You'll see that it's all for your sake," she went on
when he had grown somewhat calmer. "Steiner has arrived--he's up above
there now. You know, duckie, I can't turn HIM out of doors."
"Yes, I know; I'm not talking of HIM," whispered the boy.
"Very well then, I've stuck him into the room at the end. I said I was
out of sorts. He's unpacking his trunk. Since nobody's seen you, be
quick and run up and hide in my room and wait for me."
Georges sprang at her and threw his arms round her neck. It was true
after all! She loved him a little! So they would put the lamp out
as they did yesterday and be in the dark till daytime! Then as the
front-door bell sounded he quietly slipped away. Upstairs in the
bedroom he at once took off his shoes so as not to make any noise and
straightway crouched down behind a curtain and waited soberly.
Nana welcomed Count Muffat, who, though still shaken with passion, was
now somewhat embarrassed. She had pledged her word to him and would
even have liked to keep it since he struck her as a serious, practicable
lover. But truly, who could have foreseen all that happened yesterday?
There was the voyage and the house she had never set eyes on before and
the arrival of the drenched little lover! How sweet it had all seemed to
her, and how delightful it would be to continue in it! So much the
worse for the gentleman! For three months past she had been keeping
him dangling after her while she affected conventionality in order the
further to inflame him.
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