His very last letter contained, amongst political gossip and protestations of friendship, a ludicrous description of his present lodgings, in which the very room she now occupied, opening through folding-doors into his own, was deplored as one of his many annoyances.
Even had she not known his step, therefore, she would have no difficulty in deciding that it was the Abbé himself whom she now heard pacing the floor of the adjoining apartment, separated only by a thin deal door, painted to look like cedar-wood.
She was not given to hesitation. Trying the lock, she found it unfastened, and, taking off her travelling mask, opened the door noiselessly, to stand like a vision in the entrance, probably the very last person he expected to see.
Malletort was a difficult man to surprise. At least he never betrayed any astonishment. With perfectly cool politeness he handed a chair, as if he had been awaiting her for an hour.
"Sit down, madame," said he, "I entreat you. The roads in this weather are execrable for travelling. You must have had a long and fatiguing journey."
She could not repress a laugh.
"It seems, then, that you expected me," she answered, accepting the proffered seat. "Perhaps you know why I have come."
"Without presumption," he replied, "I may be permitted to guess. Your charming daughter lives within half a league of this spot. You think of her day by day. You look on her picture at your chateau, which, by the way, is not too amusing a residence. You pine to embrace her. You fly on the wings of maternal love and tired post-horses. You arrive in due course, like a parcel. In short, here you are. Ah! what it is to have a mother's heart!"
She appreciated and admired his coolness. The man had a certain diplomatic kind of courage about him, and was worth saving, after all. How must he have suffered, too, this poor Abbé, in his gloomy hiding-place, with the insufferable cooking that she could smell even here!
"Abbé," she resumed, "I am serious, though you make me laugh. Listen. I did not come here to see my daughter,
