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Louise had excused herself to sit, Duchemin had no doubt, by the bedside of d'Aubrac, under the duenna-like eye of an old nurse of the family. Being duly encouraged, Duchemin talked about himself, of his wanderings and adventures, all with discretion, with the neatest expurgations, and with an object, leading cunningly round to the subject of New York.
She pronounced with unbroken composure: "They have left me nothing, monsieur." Duchemin groaned and hung his head. "I knew it!" he declared. "No credit to me, however.
"He came here last night," Stanistreet volunteered deliberately "representing himself as Andre Duchemin to sell me a certain paper, the same which subsequently, I am convinced, he returned to steal." "And did," Lanyard added. "And did," the Briton conceded.
"I may tell you this much, Monsieur Duchemin: if it had not reached this country safely.... What am I saying?
"Still, you came downstairs alone!" "But naturally, monsieur." "I don't believe," said Duchemin sincerely, "the world holds a woman your peer for courage." "Or curiosity?" she laughed. "At all events, I found you, but could do nothing to rouse you. So I called Jean, and he helped me get you upstairs again." "Where does Jean sleep?"
Then he looked up the valley and saw, far off, a tiny cloud of dust kicked up by the heels of the horse ridden by the boy from the auberge, making good time on the highway to Nant. And again Duchemin wondered... Having rested, he picked himself up, found his road, a mere trail of wagon tracks, and mindful of the cooling drinks to be had in the Café de l'Univers, put his best foot foremost.
But whether he lacked staying powers or confidence, he made the mistake of adopting another and less fatiguing means of locomotion. Duchemin saw him swerve from his first course and steer for a vehicle standing at some distance evidently the conveyance which had brought the sightseers to view the spectacle of Montpellier-le-Vieux by moonlight.
For when, toward the end of the second week, he submitted that wanton luxuriance to be tamed by a barber of Florac, he hardly knew the trimly bearded mask of bronze that looked back at him from a mirror. Not that it mattered to Monsieur Duchemin. From the first he met few of any sort and none at all whom a lively and exacting distrust reckoned a likely factor in his affairs.
On the hand she stripped in order to sign her deposition Duchemin saw a blue diamond of such superb water that this amateur of precious stones caught his breath for sheer wonder at its beauty and excellence and worth. Such jewels, he knew, were few and far to seek outside the collections of princes.
"If monsieur would be so good." Duchemin knelt beside the man, who welcomed him with open eyes and a wry smile that was almost as faint as his voice. "It is nothing, monsieur a clean cut in the arm, with some loss of blood." "But let me see."
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