I gave my address, and left the shop.

The polite gravity of the son impressed me quite as disagreeably as
the impudent buffoonery of the father. I hated, from the bottom of
my heart, the tricks of the vile hagglers! It was perfectly evident
that the two rascals had a secret understanding, and had only devised
this auction-sale, with the aid of a professional appraiser, to force
the bidding on the manuscript I wanted so much up to an outrageous
figure. I was completely at their mercy. There is one evil in all
passionate desires, even the noblest--namely, that they leave us
subject to the will of others, and in so far dependent. This
reflection made me suffer cruelly; but it did not conquer my longing
to won the work of Clerk Alexander. While I was thus meditating, I
heard a coachman swear. And I discovered it was I whom he was
swearing at only when I felt the pole of a carriage poke me in the
ribs. I started aside, barely in time to save myself from being run
over; and whom did I perceive through the windows of the coupe?
Madame Trepof, being taken by two beautiful horses, and a coachman
all wrapped up in furs like a Russian Boyard, into the very street
I had just left. She did not notice me; she was laughing to herself
with that artless grace of expression which still preserved for her,
at thirty years, all the charm of her early youth.

"Well, well!" I said to myself, "she is laughing! I suppose she must
have just found another match-box."

And I made my way back to the Ponts, feeling very miserable.

Nature, eternally indifferent, neither hastened nor hurried the
twenty-fourth day of December. I went to the Hotel Bullion, and