He followed her with his eyes until she disappeared.
Then he started up and walked about the Luxembourg garden like a madman. It is possible that, at times, he laughed to himself and talked aloud. He was so dreamy when he came near the children''s nurses, that each one of them thought him in love with her.
He quitted the Luxembourg, hoping to find her again in the street.
He encountered Courfeyrac under the arcades of the Odeon, and said to him:
"Come and dine with me."
They went off to Rousseau''s and spent six francs.
Marius ate like an ogre.
He gave the waiter six sous. At dessert, he said to Courfeyrac.
"Have you read the paper? What a fine discourse Audry de Puyraveau delivered!"
He was desperately in love.
After dinner, he said to Courfeyrac:
"I will treat you to the play." They went to the Porte-Sainte-Martin to see Frederick in l''Auberge des Adrets.
Marius was enormously amused.
At the same time, he had a redoubled attack of shyness. On emerging from the theatre, he refused to look at the garter of a modiste who was stepping across a gutter, and Courfeyrac, who said:
"I should like to put that woman in my collection," almost horrified him.
Courfeyrac invited him to breakfast at the Cafe Voltaire on the following morning.
Marius went thither, and ate even more than on the preceding evening.