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Lomaque gave his subordinate a look which sent the man back directly to the shelter of the official group; then said, in lower tones than were customary with him: "I have received information relative to the mother of Superintendent Danville and the servant, and am ready to answer any questions that may be put to me." "Where are they now?" asked the president.
Danville had finished his song, had quitted the harpsichord, and was talking in whispers to his bride; Madame Danville was adding a word to the conversation every now and then; Trudaine was seated apart at the far end of the room, thoughtfully reading a letter which he had taken from his pocket, when an exclamation from Lomaque, who was still engaged with the newspaper, caused all the other occupants of the apartment to suspend their employments and look up.
"Have you never heard?" exclaimed Lomaque, with an appearance of great astonishment, "or can you have heard, and forgotten, that Madame Danville is descended from one of the noble houses of France? "Yes," replied Trudaine; "I remember to have heard something of this, and to have paid no great attention to it at the time, having little sympathy with such aspirations as you describe.
On entering the room, I find his daughter just putting away a lavender-colored silk scarf, on which she has been embroidering in silver what looks to me very like a crest and coat-of-arms. "'I don't mind your seeing what I am about, Citizen Lomaque, says she; 'for I know my father can trust you.
Close to the house they were met by the old servant. "My young lady has just sent me to call you in to coffee, monsieur," said Guillaume. "She has kept a cup hot for you, and another cup for Monsieur Lomaque." The land-steward started this time with genuine astonishment. "For me!" he exclaimed. "Mademoiselle Rose has troubled herself to keep a cup of coffee hot for me?"
Lomaque assented; but before he could add a question which was on the tip of his tongue, Trudaine had vanished in the interior of the house. "A bachelor lodging!" repeated the land-steward, standing alone on the doorstep. "At or near Lyons! Aha!
"Oh, what a day of happiness it will be when we go home again!" cried Rose. "Pray write to your friend at once," she added, addressing Lomaque, "and say we take the house, before any one else is beforehand with us!" He nodded, and folding up the letter mechanically in the old official form, made a note on it in the old official manner.
Speak if you will I can say no more." He sighed bitterly; his head dropped on his breast, and the hand which he had extended to Lomaque trembled as he withdrew it and let it fall at his side. The land-steward was not a man accustomed to hesitate, but he hesitated now. He was not usually at a loss for phrases in which to express himself, but he stammered at the very outset of his reply.
"Pray, does the citizen Maurice " Lomaque began, not seeing clearly, for the first moment, in the dark little passage. Before he could say any more his hand was grasped, his carpet-bag was taken from him, and a well-known voice cried, "Welcome! a thousand thousand times welcome, at last!
Lomaque looked at his host with perfect steadiness for an instant, then his eyes began to get weak again. "You seem to have some special interest," he quietly remarked, "if I may say so without offense, in asking me that question." "I deal frankly, at all hazards, with every one," returned Trudaine; "and stranger as you are, I will deal frankly with you.
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