15

With the onset of summer, Rene, as planned, left the service in the ordinance company. He again took up the glove trade, but, unlike his father, he perceived it not as a matter of life, but as a step towards something more important. He thought about opening a glove shop separate from the workshop and about joining the guild of merchants, which had great weight in Paris.

Rene walked around the city in search of a suitable place for his shop. At first he wanted to buy his old house on the Rue Saint-Denis, but then he abandoned this idea, deciding to find something closer to the quarters where the nobility lived.

Once during such a search, passing by some inn, Rene saw Madeleine's carriage. His heart skipped a beat and seemed to stop. He approached the carriage - it was empty. Rene went into the tavern and looked around. The hall was lined with roughly knocked together wooden tables, behind which townspeople, peasants, military men sat on benches. In the opposite wall, a niche was visib