The room was an apartment in a highly respectable hotel, in a street near the Boulevard des Capucines. Madame de Gromance, in her wisdom, had selected it, refusing to have anything to do with the less subtle arrangements of Philippe, who had hired a little _rez-de-chaussée_, in the lonely Avenue Kléber. It was her opinion that a woman who wished to keep her affairs to herself must see that they take place in the very heart of Paris, in some respectable hotel frequented by people of divers races and tongues. She hardly ever spent more than two consecutive months in Paris, but she frequently met Philippe there, and in far greater security than she could have done in the provinces. As she sat on the edge of the bed, the soft light fell upon her fair fluffy hair, the milk-white skin of her sloping shoulders, and her pretty but somewhat drooping breast. “I am sure I shall be late again,” she said. “Tell me the time, _mon-petit_, and don’t make a mistake. It’s really important!” “Why do you always call me ‘_mon petit_’? Ten past six,” he returned in a surly voice. “Ten past six? Are you quite sure? I call you ‘_mon petit_’ because I love you. What would you have me call you?” “I call you Clotilde, you might occasionally call me Philippe.” “I never do call people by their names.” “Oh, well! no matter!” he said bitterly. “I don’t presume to imagine that I shall change your habits.” She picked up her stockings from the floor, stretching her back like a cat about to pounce upon a mouse. “What does it matter? I never think of calling you by your Christian name, as I do my husband, or my brother, or my cousins.” “All right! all right!” he replied. “I will conform to custom.” “What custom?” Jumping up with her stockings in her hand, she came across the room and kissed him upon the neck. Though by no means a clever man, he was suspicious, and an idea that had lately struck him was worrying him; he suspected that Madame de Gromance was careful to avoid making use of his name, or of the name of any other lover, for fear of getting mixed in a moment of supreme excitement, for she was a sensitive soul!