The two rivals, still intimate friends, intended to pay their first
visit at the Chalet on the evening of the day succeeding their
arrival. They had spent Sunday and part of Monday in unpacking and
arranging Madame Amaury's house for a month's stay. The poet, always
calculating effects, wished to make the most of the probable
excitement which his arrival would case in Havre, and which would of
course echo up to the Mignons. Therefore, in his role of a man needing
rest, he did not leave the house. La Briere went twice to walk past
the Chalet, though always with a sense of despair, for he feared to
displease Modeste, and the future seemed to him dark with clouds. The
two friends came down to dinner on Monday dressed for the momentous
visit. La Briere wore the same clothes he had so carefully selected
for the famous Sunday; but he now felt like the satellite of planet,
and resigned himself to the uncertainties of his situation. Canalis,
on the other hand, had carefully attended to his black coat, his
orders, and all those little drawing-room elegancies, which his
intimacy with the Duchesse de Chaulieu and the fashionable world of
the faubourg had brought to perfection.
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