A world--no, a constellation, a universe!--of reproach was in the word.
"I retract the accusation," I said promptly. "I meant something else."
"Upon everything that takes place at our hotel here, I am silent to all the world."
"As the grave!" I said with enthusiasm. "Truly--that is a thing well known. But Jean Ferret, then? He is not so discreet; I have suspected that you are in his confidence. At times you have even hinted as much.
Can you tell me if he saw the automobile of Monsieur Ingle when it came back to the chateau after leaving here?"
"It had arrived the moment before he departed."
"Quite SO! I understand," said I.
"He related to me that Mademoiselle Ward had the appearance of agitation, and Madame d"Armand that of pallor, which was also the case with Monsieur Ward."
"Therefore," I said, "Jean Ferret ran all the way to Pere Baudry"s to learn from you the reason for this agitation and this pallor?"
"But, monsieur--"
"I retract again!" I cut him off--to save time. "What other news had he?"
There came a gleam into his small, infolded eyes, a tiny glitter reflecting the mellow candle-light, but changing it, in that reflection, to a cold and sinister point of steel. It should have warned me, but, as he paused, I repeated my question.
"Monsieur, people say everything," he answered, frowning as if deploring what they said in some secret, particular instance. "The world is full of idle gossipers, tale-bearers, spreaders of scandal!
And, though I speak with perfect respect, all the people at the chateau are not perfect in such ways."
"Do you mean the domestics?"
"The visitors!"
"What do they say?"
"Eh, well, then, they say--but no!" He contrived a masterly pretense of pained reluctance. "I cannot--"
"Speak out," I commanded, piqued by his shilly-shallying. "What do they say?"
"Monsieur, it is about"--he shifted his weight from one leg to the other--"it is about--about that beautiful Mademoiselle Elliott who sometimes comes here."
This was so far from what I had expected that I was surprised into a slight change of att.i.tude, which all too plainly gratified him, though he made an effort to conceal it. "Well," I said uneasily, "what do they find to say of Mademoiselle Elliott?"
"They say that her painting is only a ruse to see monsieur."
"To see Monsieur Saffren, yes."
"But, no!" he cried. "That is not--"
"Yes, it is," I a.s.sured him calmly. "As you know, Monsieur Saffren is very, very handsome, and Mademoiselle Elliott, being a painter, is naturally anxious to look at him from time to time."
"You are sure?" he said wistfully, even plaintively. "That is not the meaning Jean Ferret put upon it."
"He was mistaken."
"It may be, it may be," he returned, greatly crestfallen, picking up his tray and preparing to go. "But Jean Ferret was very positive."
"And I am even more so!"
"Then that malicious maid of Mademoiselle Ward"s was mistaken also," he sighed, "when she said that now a marriage is to take place between Mademoiselle Ward and Monsieur Ingle--"
"Proceed," I bade him.
He moved a few feet nearer the kitchen. "The malicious woman said to Jean Ferret--" He paused and coughed. "It was in reference to those Italian jewels monsieur used to send--"
"What about them?" I asked ominously.
"The woman says that Mademoiselle Ward--" he increased the distance between us--"that now she should give them to Mademoiselle Elliott!
GOOD night, monsieur!"
His entrance into the kitchen was precipitate. I sank down again into the wicker chair (from which I had hastily risen) and contemplated the stars. But the short reverie into which I then fell was interrupted by Mr. Percy, who, sauntering leisurely about the garden, paused to address me.
"You folks thinks you was all to the gud, gittin" them trunks off, what?"
"You speak in mysterious numbers," I returned, having no comprehension of his meaning.
"I suppose you don" know nothin" about it," he laughed satirically.
"You didn" go over to Lisieux "saft"noon to ship "em? Oh, no, not YOU!"
"I went for a long walk this afternoon, Mr. Percy. Naturally, I couldn"t have walked so far as Lisieux and back."
"Luk here, m"friend," he said sharply--"I reco"nise "at you"re tryin"
t" play your own hand, but I ast you as man to man: DO you think you got any chanst t" git that feller off t" Paris?"
"DO you think it will rain to-night?" I inquired.
The light of a reflecting lamp which hung on the wall near the archway enabled me to perceive a bitter frown upon his forehead. "When a gen"leman asts a question AS a gen"leman," he said, his voice expressing a n.o.ble pathos, "I can"t see no call for no other gen"leman to go an" play the smart Aleck and not answer him."
In simple dignity he turned his back upon me and strolled to the other end of the courtyard, leaving me to the renewal of my reverie.
It was not a happy one. My friends--old and new--I saw inextricably caught in a tangle of cross-purposes, miserably and hopelessly involved in a situation for which I could predict no possible relief. I was able to understand now the beauty as well as the madness of Keredec"s plan; and I had told him so (after the departure of the Quesnay party), asking his pardon for my brusquerie of the morning. But the towering edifice his hopes had erected was now tumbled about his ears: he had failed to elude the Mursiana. There could be no doubt of her absolute control of the situation. THAT was evident in the every step of the youth now confidently parading before me.
Following his active stride with my eye, I observed him in the act of saluting, with a gracious nod of his bare head, some one, invisible to me, who was approaching from the road. Immediately after--and altogether with the air of a person merely "happening in"--a slight figure, clad in a long coat, a short skirt, and a broad-brimmed, veil-bound brown hat, sauntered casually through the archway and came into full view in the light of the reflector.
I sprang to my feet and started toward her, uttering an exclamation which I was unable to stifle, though I tried to.
"Good evening, Mr. Percy," she said cheerily. "It"s the most EXUBERANT night. YOU"RE quite hearty, I hope?"
"Takin" a walk, I see, little lady," he observed with genial patronage.
"Oh, not just for that," she returned. "It"s more to see HIM." She nodded to me, and, as I reached her, carelessly gave me her left hand.
"You know I"m studying with him," she continued to Mr. Percy, exhibiting a sketch-book under her arm. "I dropped over to get a criticism."