During the short time that Madame de la Chanterie's arm rested upon his as they walked to the carriage, Godefroid could not escape the glamour of the words: "Your account is for sixteen hundred thousand francs!"--words said by Louis Mongenod to the woman whose life was spent in the depths of the cloisters of Notre-Dame.The thought, "She must be rich!" entirely changed his way of looking at the matter."How old is she?" he began to ask himself; and a vision of a romance in the rue Chanoinesse came to him."She certainly has an air of nobility!
Can she be concerned in some bank?" thought he.
In our day nine hundred and ninety-nine young men out of a thousand in Godefroid's position would have had the thought of marrying that woman.
A furniture dealer, who also had apartments to let, paid about three thousand francs for the articles Godefroid was willing to sell, and agreed to let him keep them during the few days that were needed to prepare the shabby apartment in the rue Chanoinesse for this lodger with a sick mind.Godefroid went there at once, and obtained from Madame de la Chanterie the address of a painter who, for a moderate sum, agreed to whiten the ceilings, clean the windows, paint the woodwork, and stain the floors, within a week.Godefroid took the measure of the rooms, intending to put the same carpet in all of them, --a green carpet of the cheapest kind.He wished for the plainest uniformity in this retreat, and Madame de la Chanterie approved of the idea.She calculated, with Manon's assistance, the number of yards of white calico required for the window curtains, and also for those of the modest iron bed; and she undertook to buy and have them made for a price so moderate as to surprise Godefroid.Having brought with him a certain amount of furniture, the whole cost of fitting up the rooms proved to be not over six hundred francs.