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improper—‘
‘How so?’ replied the clerk. ‘It is done at Paris.’
And that, as an irresistible argument, decided her.
Still the cab did not come. Leon was afraid she might go
back into the church. At last the cab appeared.
‘At all events, go out by the north porch,’ cried the beadle,
who was left alone on the threshold, ‘so as to see the Resur-
rection, the Last Judgment, Paradise, King David, and the
Condemned in Hell-flames.’
‘Where to, sir?’ asked the coachman.
‘Where you like,’ said Leon, forcing Emma into the cab.
And the lumbering machine set out. It went down the
Rue Grand-Pont, crossed the Place des Arts, the Quai Na-
poleon, the Pont Neuf, and stopped short before the statue
of Pierre Corneille.
‘Go on,’ cried a voice that came from within.
The cab went on again, and as soon as it reached the Car-
refour Lafayette, set off down-hill, and entered the station
at a gallop.
‘No, straight on!’ cried the same voice.
The cab came out by the gate, and soon having reached
the Cours, trotted quietly beneath the elm-trees. The coach-
man wiped his brow, put his leather hat between his knees,
and drove his carriage beyond the side alley by the meadow
to the margin of the waters.
It went along by the river, along the towing-path paved
with sharp pebbles, and for a long while in the direction of
Oyssel, beyond the isles.
But suddenly it turned with a dash across Quatremares,
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