But now is the time to knock in the nail.

I know his zeal, and I depend upon him."' An hour before I should have listened to this message with serious doubts and misgivings.

Now, acquainted with mademoiselle's arrival, I returned M.de Rambouillet an answer in the same strain, and parting civilly from Bertram, who was a man I much esteemed, I hastened on to my lodgings, exulting in the thought that the hour and the woman were come at last, and that before the dawn of another day I might hope, all being well, to accomplish with honour to myself and advantage to others the commission which M.de Rosny had entrusted to me.
I must not deny that, mingled with this, was some excitement at the prospect of seeing mademoiselle again.

I strove to conjure up before me as I mounted the stairs the exact expression of her face as I had last seen it bending from the window at Rosny; to the end that I might have some guide for my future conduct, and might be less likely to fall into the snare of a young girl's coquetry.

But I could come now, as then, to no satisfactory or safe conclusion, and only felt anew the vexation I had experienced on losing the velvet knot, which she had given me on that occasion.
I knocked at the door of the rooms which I had reserved for her, and which were on the floor below my own; but I got no answer.