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Updated: June 8, 2025
"I was nearly over you," said he. "You had no ears." And I am sorry to say that Jean winked, insinuating that Marie Delhasse and I had been preoccupied. The diplomacy of non-recognition had failed to strike Jean. I made the best of a bad job, and asked: "What brings you here?" Marie stood a few paces off, regarding us. "I'm looking for Mme. la Duchesse," grinned Jean.
The duke's arm fell to his side; and in a changed voice, from which the cruel bantering had fled, while eager excitement filled its place, he cried: "What? Where who is?" "The lady Mlle. Delhasse. A girl I know there in Avranches saw her go. She is there now." "Where, man, where?" roared the duke, stamping his foot, and menacing the wretch again with his pistol.
I supposed that I must take the troublesome ornament back to Marie Delhasse, confessing that my fine idea had ended in nothing save a direct and stinging insult for her and a scathing snub for me. My pride made this necessity hard to swallow, but I believe there was also a more worthy feeling that caused me to shrink from it.
I felt that I also had done something like a day's work; but my task was not complete till I had lodged my precious trust safely in the keeping of the duchess. There was, however, still time to spare, and I sat down at a café and ordered some coffee. While it was being brought my thoughts played round Marie Delhasse.
At any rate, be the reason what it may, I did not seriously doubt that Marie Delhasse had cut the cords which bound her by a hasty flight from Avranches; and my conviction was deepened by my knowledge that an evening train left for Paris just about half an hour after Marie, having played her trick on her mother and on the Duke of Saint-Maclou, had walked out of the hotel, no man and no woman hindering her.
But I will not be under the same roof with Marie Delhasse." And her declaration finished, the duchess nodded most emphatically, and turned to her cup again. The name of Marie Delhasse, shot forth from Mme. de Saint-Maclou's pouting lips, pierced the cloud that had seemed to envelop my brain. I sat up on the sofa and looked eagerly at the duchess. "You saw her, then, at the convent?" I asked.
"Nay," said I, "there is one thing I want to do before that;" and I called to a servant girl who was hovering between terror and excitement at the events of the evening, and asked her whether Mme. Delhasse had returned. "No, sir," she answered. "The lady left word that she would be back in half an hour, but she has not yet returned."
I heard a despairing sigh from the poor old lady, but she had no chance of overtaking us. The audacious movement was successful. "Now we can talk," said the duchess. And talk she did, for she threw at me the startling assertion: "I believe you're falling in love with Mlle. Delhasse. If you do, I'll never speak to you again!"
My repast arriving, I fell to. A few moments later, I heard Marie say, in her composed indolent tones: "I'm not sure I shall go at all. Entre nous, he bores me." I stole a glance at Mme. Delhasse. Consternation was writ large on her face, and suspicion besides. She gave her daughter a quick sidelong glance, and a frown gathered on her brow.
My hand was actually on the way to the spot where I felt the red box pressing against my side, when he rose from his seat and strode toward me; and a sudden passion surged in his voice. "Answer me! answer me!" he cried. "No, I'm not asking about my wife; I don't care a farthing for that empty little parrot. Answer me, sir, as you value your life! What do you know of Marie Delhasse?"
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