"You'll take the carriage, won't you, ma'am?" she said, with undisguised
astonishment.
"No, I shall not want the carriage; it's very near. Be sure you keep baby
warm, Mrs. Brobson."
Clarissa hurried out into the street. The landau, with its pair of
Yorkshire-bred horses, was moving slowly up and down, to the admiration of
juvenile Paris, which looked upon Mr. Granger's deep-chested, strong-limbed
bays almost as a new order in the animal creation. Mrs. Granger felt that
the eyes of coachman and footman were upon her as she turned the first
corner, thinking of nothing for the moment, but how to escape the
watchfulness of her own servants. She walked a little way down the street,
and then asked a sleepy-looking waiter, who was sweeping the threshold of a
very dingy restaurant, to direct her to the Rue du Chevalier Bayard. It was
_tous pres_, the man said; only a turn to the right, at that corner yonder,
and the next turning was the street she wanted. She thanked him, and
hurried on, with her heart beating faster at every step. Austin might be
out, she thought, and her trouble wasted; and there was no knowing when she
might have another opportunity. Even if he were at home, their interview
must needs be brief: there was the nurse waiting and wondering; the baby
exposed to possible peril from east winds.
The Rue du Chevalier Bayard was a street of tall gaunt houses that had seen
better days--houses with _porte-cocheres_, exaggerated iron knockers, and
queer old lamps; dreary balconies on the first floor, with here and there a
plaster vase containing some withered member of the palm tribe, or a faded
orange-tree; everywhere and in everything an air of dilapidation and decay;
faded curtains, that had once been fine, flapping in the open windows;
Venetian shutters going to ruin; and the only glimpse of brightness or
domestic comfort confined to the humble parlour of the portress, who kept
watch and ward over one of the dismal mansions, and who had a birdcage
hanging in her window, an Angora cat sunning itself on the stone sill, and
a row of scarlet geraniums in the little iron balcony.
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