in leaving as on entering the house. The lady always left first; and stepping into her carriage, it drove away, sometimes toward the right hand, sometimes the left; then, about twenty minutes afterward, the gentleman would also leave, buried in his cravat or concealed by his handkerchief.
The day after Monte-Cristo had called upon Danglars, the day of Valentine's burial, the mysterious lodger entered at ten o'clock in the morning instead of four in the afternoon. Almost directly afterward, without the usual interval of time, a hackney-coach arrived, and the veiled lady ran hastily upstairs. The door opened, but before it could be closed, the lady exclaimed:
"Oh, Lucien! oh, my friend!"
The concierge, therefore, heard for the first time that the lodger's name was Lucien; still, as he was the very perfection of a door-keeper, he made up his mind not to tell his wife.
"Well, what is the matter, my dear?" asked the gentleman whose name the lady's agitation revealed; "tell me what is the matter."
"Oh, Lucien! can I confide in you?"
"Of course, you know you can do so. But what can be the matter? Your note of this morning has completely bewildered me. This precipitation—your disordered handwriting—come, ease me of my anxiety, or else frighten me at once."
"Lucien! a great event has happened!" said the lady, glancing inquiringly at Lucien, "M. Danglars left last night!"
"Left!—M. Danglars left! Where is he gone to?"
"I do not know."
"What do you mean? Is he gone, intending not to return?"
"Undoubtedly: at ten o'clock at night his horses took him to the barrier of Charenton; there a post-chaise was waiting for him—he entered it with his valet-de-chambre, saying that he was going to Fontainebleau."
"Then what do you mean———"
"Stay! he left a letter for me."
"A letter?"
"Yes; read it."
And the baroness took from her pocket a letter which she gave to Debray. Debray paused a moment before reading, as if trying to guess its contents, or, perhaps, while making up his mind how to act, whatever it might contain. No doubt his ideas were arranged in a few minutes, for he began reading the letter which caused so much uneasiness in the heart of the baroness, and which ran as follows:
"'Madame and most faithful wife.'"
