"Joseph, I am going to bed at once, and I must be called at five o'clock to-morrow morning."
"Are you going on a journey, sir?"
"Not at present."
"Then shall I get ready your shooting things, sir?"
"No, I am not going out shooting. You will merely have ready for me the things I am going to take off."
Joseph, like the well-bred domestic that he was, gave no sign of the astonishment which the order caused him; but, whilst his master was undressing, he thought he might venture on saying—
"Will you kindly grant me, sir, a moment's conversation?"
M. de Morin, who was unbuttoning his waistcoat, raised his head, looked at his valet, who was standing at attention before him, impassible, respectful, correct in every detail, and then, satisfied, apparently, with his inspection, replied—
"Say on, but be brief—I want to go to sleep."
"Rumours," commenced Joseph with an air of great importance, "have been current in Paris for several days past about a design which you, sir, are supposed to have formed—I make bold to ask you, sir, if there is any foundation for these rumours?"