Shall I seek M. Daburon? No,
not yet. The night is necessary to me to sift to the bottom all the
particulars, and arrange my ideas systematically. But, on the other
hand, if I sit here all alone, this confounded case will keep me in a
fever of speculation, and as I have just eaten a great deal, I may get
an attack of indigestion. My faith! I will call upon Madame Gerdy: she
has been ailing for some days past. I will have a chat with Noel, and
that will change the course of my ideas."
He got up from the table, put on his overcoat, and took his hat and
cane.
"Are you going out, sir?" asked Manette.
"Yes."
"Shall you be late?"
"Possibly."
"But you will return to-night?"
"I do not know."
One minute later, M. Tabaret was ringing his friend's bell.
Madame Gerdy lived in respectable style. She possessed sufficient for
her wants; and her son's practice, already large, had made them almost
rich. She lived very quietly, and with the exception of one or two
friends, whom Noel occasionally invited to dinner, received very few
visitors. During more than fifteen years that M. Tabaret came familiarly
to the apartments, he had only met the cure of the parish, one of Noel's
old professors, and Madame Gerdy's brother, a retired colonel.
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