garnet , having frequented the bookshop for a period of several months , on an almost daily basis , purchasing during this time a considerable number of volumes , none of which he had either the time or the intention of ever reading , all , seemingly , caught up in a whirlwind of spiralling inflationary prices , and on each occasion met without the slightest hint of recognition , let alone friendship , by the increasingly - to his mind - pulchritudinous proprietress , it came as a great shock to him , when one day , as he was preparing to depart the bookshop , a copy of the 1894 paris librairie edition of zolas la curre wrapped inside a modest brown paper bag and stowed away beneath the storage compartment beneath his wheelchair , and two one hundred francs notes fewer in his wallet , that he thought he heard the object of his desire ask him if he would like to go to bed with her .