midday
She pressed a hasty kiss on my burning lips , giving and prolonging it with the violent voluptuousness of fear , as the spurred boots of her sweetheart made the wooden steps of the stairs creak , and the intriguer was in fear of losing her Dutch linen trousseau and her godroon silver pot . The postboy lowered the steps of the _ coupé _ , but M. d'Anquetil asked Jahel if it would not be more pleasant to travel all four together in the large compartment , and I recognised that that was the first effect of his intimacy with Jahel , and that the full satisfaction of his desires had left it less agreeable to be alone with her . My good old tutor had taken care to provide himself with five or six bottles of white wine from the cellar of _ The Armed Man _ , which he laid under the cushions , and which we drank to overcome the monotony of the journey . At midday we arrived at Joigny , a neat and pretty town . Foreseeing that my ready money would be all used before we could arrive at the end of our journey , and finding the idea intolerable of letting M. d'Anquetil pay my part in the travelling expenses unless I was compelled to do so by the most unavoidable necessity , I resolved to sell a ring and a medallion , gifts from my mother , and went about the town in quest of a jeweller ready to buy them . I discovered one in the square opposite the church , who sold crosses and chains in a shop under the sign of _ The Good Faith _ . What was my astonishment to find in this very shop , before the counter , my good master , showing to the jeweller five or six little diamonds , and asking the shopman what price he would offer for those stones .