The harsh voice of Colonel Hofferman broke the silence:
"Hypotheses! True to this extent, Monsieur Juve, that Brocq may very well have had a mistress--we are all agreed about that--but, in reality, it is simply romance!"
There was a discreet knock at the door.
"What is it?" demanded the Under-Secretary. The form of an usher showed itself in the half-opened doorway.
He entered, and, turning towards the Under-Secretary, said: "Excuse me, sir." Then, addressing Colonel Hofferman: "Captain Loreuil sends me to tell Colonel Hofferman that he has returned, and has a communication of extreme urgency to lay before him."
"The captain must wait!" cried Hofferman, in a harsh, authoritative tone.
But the usher, fulfilling his orders, replied:
"The captain antic.i.p.ated this answer, Colonel, and told me to add that the communication cannot wait."
The usher withdrew. Hofferman glanced questioningly at the Under-Secretary.
"Go to him, Colonel, and return as soon as possible."
The Under-Secretary addressed Juve:
"The Government is greatly annoyed by all these incidents, which are a.s.suming enormous proportions.... Are you aware that rumours of war are becoming wide-spread?... Public opinion is in a most unsettled state.... Things are bad on the Bourse, too--going from bad to worse!... Really, it is all most distressing!"
With a movement of sympathetic acquiescence, Juve said gently:
"I cannot help it, Monsieur!"
It was noon. Twelve was striking.
X
AUNT PALMYRA.
Early in the morning of the day on which the meeting took place in the private office of the Under-Secretary of State, the proprietor of _The Three Moons_ at Chalons was busy bottling his wine. Dawn was just breaking, and the good man had a spirit lamp in his cellar to throw light upon his task.
Suddenly his bottling operations were disturbed by an unknown voice calling him insistently from the top of the steps.
"Hey, there! Father Louis! Where is Father Louis?"
Fuming and grumbling, the innkeeper mounted his cellar-steps, and appeared on the porch.
"I am Father Louis! What am I wanted for?"
The publican found himself face to face with an enormously stout woman: a grotesque figure clad in light-coloured garments, so cut that they exaggerated her stoutness; a large, many-coloured shawl was thrown round her shoulders; on her head was a big round hat, tied with strings in a bow under her chin. This odd head-gear was topped with a bunch of gaudy feathers, ragged and out of curl. A veil of flowery design half hid this woman"s features: though far from her first youth, she no doubt wished to appear young still. The skin of her face was covered with powder and paint, so badly laid on, that daubs of white, of red, and blue, lay side by side in all their crudity: there was no soft blending of tints: it was the make-up of no artist"s hand.
"What an object!" thought the publican, staring at this oddity, who had seated herself on the porch seat and had placed on the ground a great wicker basket filled with vegetables.
"Ouf!" she cried. "It is a long step to your canteen, Father Louis!
My word, I never thought I should get here! Well now, how is my little pet of a girl?"
Nonplussed, suspicious, Father Louis looked hard at this strange visitor: never had he seen anyone like her! What astonished him was to hear her calling him by the name used only by his familiars.
"Whoever are you?" he asked in a surly tone. "I don"t remember you!"
"That"s not surprising," cried the visitor, who seemed of a gay disposition, for she always laughed at the close of every sentence.
"My goodness! It would be queer if you did not recognise me, considering you have never seen me before!... I am Aunt Palmyra, let me tell you!"
The innkeeper, more and more out of countenance, searched his memory in vain.
"Aunt Palmyra?" he echoed.
"Why, of course, you big stupid! Nichoune"s aunt--a customer of yours, she is! She must have mentioned me often--I adore the little pet!"
Father Louis had not the slightest recollection of any such mention, but, out of politeness, he murmured:
"Of course! Why, of course!"
"Well, then, old dear, you must tell me where she hangs out here! I must go and give her a hug and a kiss!"
Mechanically, the innkeeper directed Aunt Palmyra.
"On the ground floor--end of the pa.s.sage!... But you"re never thinking of waking Nichoune at this early hour! She"ll make a pretty noise if you do!"
"Bah!" cried Aunt Palmyra: "Wait till the little dear sees who it is!... Just look at the nice things I"ve brought her!" and, showing him the vegetables in her basket, she began to drawl in a sing-song voice:
"Will you have turnips and leeks? Here"s stuff to make broth of the best! It will make her think of bygone days when she lived with us in the country!"
"My faith!" thought Father Louis, "if Nichoune opens her mouth!"
Aunt Palmyra was knocking repeatedly at Nichoune"s door, but there was no response.
"Well, what a sleep she"s having!"
"Likely enough," replied Father Louis, "considering she was not in bed till four o"clock!"
All the same, this persistent silence puzzled the innkeeper. He tried to peep through the keyhole, but the key was in it. Then he quietly drew a gimlet from his pocket and bored a hole in the door. Aunt Palmyra watched him smiling: she winked and jogged his elbow.
"Ho, ho, my boy! I"ll wager you don"t stick at having a look at your customers this way, when it suits you!"
With the ease of practice the innkeeper glued his eye to the hole he had just made. He uttered an exclamation:
"Good heavens!"
"What is it?" cried Nichoune"s aunt in a tone of alarm. "Is her room empty?"