"Is a scoundrel!"
"Speak lower, I beg of you; if he should come in, if he should hear you.
But you are mistaken, madame, my master had consented to Blanche"s marriage to Urbain."
"The better to hide his plans."
"Poor Urbain, I never see him; no doubt he is still looking for our dear little one."
"Where was Blanche"s chamber?" said Julia, looking curiously around her.
"On the first floor looking on the street, madame. Since she came to this house she had occupied no other."
"It was to this house that she came, then, with her father who was murdered?"
"Yes, madame."
"Were you then in the barber"s service?"
"No, madame, I didn"t come here until three years after."
"Where does your master sleep?"
"Directly underneath this. This is why, if he should come in, I am afraid that he would hear us speak."
"Have you always had this room?"
"No, madame, I formerly had the one above Blanche"s, and I liked it much better than this gloomy chamber, which has been unoccupied for a long time, and which I believe was formerly the dwelling of a magician named Odoard."
Julia arose and for some moments walked silently about the room. All of a sudden she exclaimed,--
"Oh, if these walls could only speak!"
"In fact," said Marguerite shaking her head, "I believe that we should learn some terrible things; a tier of tags, a sorcerer."
Julia seemed to be thinking deeply when they heard the street door shut.
"O my G.o.d! here is my master, I am lost," cried Marguerite; "he has expressly forbidden me to receive anybody."
"Keep still, he shall not know that I am here. Does he sometimes come up into your room?"
"No, but--good Saint Margaret--if he should discover--"
Julia put a finger on her mouth, as a sign for the old servant to be silent. Presently the barber was heard calling Marguerite; who was trembling so that she did not know how to stand.
"Tell him that you are going down," said Julia.
Marguerite approached the door, then, thinking she heard her master coming upstairs,--
"Here he is--he"ll see you," said she to Julia.
"You must hide me."
"Wait, I had forgotten it--quick--quick--in this closet."
Marguerite ran to her alcove, pa.s.sed behind the bed, opened the little door hidden by the tapestry, and Julia, as quick as lightning, entered the closet. The old servant shut the door on her, took her lamp and hastened to go downstairs. Her master was in the lower room.
"You were very slow in coming down," said the barber, looking at Marguerite.
"Monsieur, at my age one cannot move quickly."
"Has anybody been here during my absence?"
"No, monsieur, n.o.body."
"Urbain, perhaps?"
"I a.s.sure you I haven"t seen him."
"Chaudoreille?"
"No, nor him either."
The barber asked for what he needed and then made a sign to Marguerite to retire.
"Is monsieur going to stay up late?" asked she.
"What does that matter to you?" asked Touquet looking sternly at her, "I"ve already told you that I hate curious people as well as gossips."
"That"s true. I"m going to bed, monsieur."
The old woman regained her room, closed the door carefully, and then went to release Julia, who had remained without a light in the little closet.
"Come, madame," said she, "come, you needn"t stay in there now."
"A moment," said Julia, taking the lamp from Marguerite"s hand, "I should like to examine this place."
"Oh, mercy! you will find nothing curious there. We went into it once, Blanche and I--"
"There is a door here," said Julia holding the light to the wall at the back.
"A door? do you think so? We didn"t see it, but then we only remained for a moment and without a light."
Julia tried to open the door which led to the staircase, but she was not successful.
"This door is closed from the other side," said she, "it must communicate with some secret pa.s.sage."
"What does it matter to you, madame? Come, I beg of you."