“ You will come back?” she said.
“ Yes.”
“ But when?”
“ Immediately.”
“ It’s a trick,” said the chemist, when he saw Leon. “I wanted to interrupt this visit, that seemed to me to annoy you. Let’s go and have a glass of garus at Bridoux’.”
Leon vowed that he must get back to his office. Then the druggist joked him about quill-drivers and the law.
“ Leave Cujas and Barthole alone a bit. Who the devil prevents you? Be a man! Let’s go to Bridoux’. You’ll see his dog. It’s very interesting.”
And as the clerk still insisted—
“ I’ll go with you. I’ll read a paper while I wait for you, or turn over the leaves of a ‘Code.’”
Leon, bewildered by Emma’s anger, Monsieur Homais’ chatter, and, perhaps, by the heaviness of the luncheon, was undecided, and, as it were, fascinated by the che
