Monsieur de Luceval was silent for a moment. A fierce struggle between jealousy, his natural curiosity, and his fear that Madame d"Infreville might warn Florence as she had threatened, was going on in his breast.
At last his better nature, aided a little perhaps by this last consideration, triumphed, and he replied:
"You have my promise, madame."
"Thank you, thank you, monsieur. A presentiment tells me that this good resolution will bring us happiness. Besides, reasoning entirely from what we now know--"
"Good Heavens, madame, I should be only too thankful to be able to hope!"
"And I think we have good reason to hope. In the first place, if Michel and Florence loved each other,--it is useless to mince words,--if they were lovers, there is nothing to prevent them from living as man and wife in some quiet country village, or even here in Paris, the place of all others in which one can live in seclusion, and according to one"s liking."
"But these adjoining apartments, is it not more than likely that they communicate with each other?"
"But what possible object could there be in this secrecy,--these precautions so utterly foreign to Michel"s and Florence"s character?"
"Why, to prevent scandal, madame."
"But if they changed their names and declared themselves man and wife, how could there be any scandal? Who would discover the truth? Who would have any interest in ferreting it out?"
"Why, sooner or later, you or I, madame."
"All the more reason that they would have changed their names if they had felt that they had anything to fear, for so long as they kept their names, was it not comparatively easy to find out their whereabouts, as we have discovered for ourselves? Besides, monsieur, if they had wished to conceal themselves effectually, couldn"t they have done it just as easily as they have managed to conceal the greater part of their existence,--for they spend most of the time away from home, you know."
"And it is that very thing that puzzles me so! Where do they spend this time? Where were they going this morning? Florence, who could seldom be induced to leave her bed by noon, has been getting up before four o"clock in the morning for four years. Think of it!"
"And Michel, too. It is certainly astonishing."
"To what can we attribute this change?"
"I do not know, but the change itself is a very favourable indication.
It leads me to think that Michel has at last overcome the apathy and indolence which were so fatal to his welfare, and which have caused me so much suffering."
"You reason very sensibly, madame. If Florence is no longer the indolent creature who regarded a drive as entirely too fatiguing, and the slightest pleasure trip as positive martyrdom, if the life of privation which she has led for the last four years has transformed her, how gladly will I forget and ignore the past! How happy my life may still be! But, hold, madame, what I fear above all things now, is that I shall be such a fool as to hope at all."
"Why do you say that?"
"You have some reason to hope, madame; for you, at least, have been loved, while Florence has never known a spark of love for me."
"Because there was such an utter lack of congeniality between her character and yours; but if, as we have good reason to believe, her character has been transformed by the very exigencies of the life she has been leading for the last four years, perhaps what she most disliked in you prior to that time will please her most now. Did she not tell you, in the heat of your quarrel, that she considered you one of the most generous and honourable of men?"
"Nevertheless, I dare not cherish the slightest hope, madame.
Disappointment would be too hard to bear."
"Hope on, hope ever, monsieur! Disappointment, if it comes at all, will come only too soon. But to change hope into certainty, we must first penetrate the veil of mystery in which Florence and Michel have enveloped themselves. The nature of the relations existing between them once fathomed, we shall know exactly where we stand."
"I agree with you perfectly, madame, but how are we to do that?"
"By resorting to the same expedient we employed this morning; by following them, though not without exercising much greater precautions.
The hour at which they leave home makes this comparatively easy, but if this mode of procedure proves a failure, we shall have to devise some other."
"Possibly it would be less likely to excite their suspicions if I followed them alone."
"Very well, monsieur, and if you do not succeed, I will see what I can do."
Here an apologetic rap at the door interrupted the conversation.
"Come in," said Madame d"Infreville.
A servant entered with a letter in his hand.
"A messenger just left this for madame," he explained.
"From whom?"
"He did not say, madame. He left as soon as he handed me the letter."
"You may go," said Valentine; then, turning to M. de Luceval, "Will you permit me?" she asked.
He bowed his a.s.sent. Valentine broke the seal, glanced at the signature, and exclaimed:
"Florence? Why, it is a letter from Florence!"
"From my wife?" exclaimed M. de Luceval.
They gazed at each other in utter amazement.
"But how did she discover your address, madame?"
"I have no idea."
"Read it, madame, read it, in Heaven"s name!"
Madame d"Infreville read as follows:
"MY DEAR VALENTINE:--I have learned that you are in Paris, and I can not tell you what happiness it would give me to embrace you, but it is absolutely necessary for me to defer that pleasure for nearly three months, that is, until early in June.
"If you care to see your old friend at that time,--and I have the a.s.surance to believe that you will,--you must go to M. Duval, notary, at Number 17 Rue Montmartre, and tell him who you are. He will then give you a letter containing my address. He will not receive this letter until the last of May, however; and at this present time he does not even know me by name.
"I am so certain of your affection, my dear Valentine, that I shall count upon a visit from you. The journey may seem a little long to you, but you can remain with me and rest, and we shall have so much to say to each other.
"Your best friend, who loves you with all her heart,
"FLORENCE DE L."
The intense surprise this letter excited can be readily understood.
Valentine and her companion remained silent for a moment. M. de Luceval was the first to speak.
"They must have seen us following them this morning," he exclaimed.