My Neighbor Raymond (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume XI)

The narrative follows a bachelor who, after a chance collision on the boulevards, shelters a tired young working woman in his apartment to spare her from the night watch. Their clandestine meeting triggers a chain of awkward and comic encounters with inquisitive neighbors and a meddlesome fellow tenant, prompting the protagonist to improvise explanations that protect reputations while feeding gossip. Episodes blend light satire of urban domestic life, the small humiliations of social observation, and capricious romantic pursuits, presented through episodic scenes of embarrassment, resourcefulness, and moral ambiguity.