"The devil!" exclaimed Lorin, "there is no one here."
"He must have escaped," murmured Maurice.
"Impossible, citizens, impossible!" cried the man in gray. "I tell you he was seen to enter here an hour ago, and no one has been seen to go out, and all the outlets from the garden are well guarded."
Lorin opened the cabinets, the wardrobes, and looked everywhere, even where it was physically impossible that a man could be concealed.
"You see, however, that no one is here."
"No one!" repeated Maurice, with an emotion easily understood,—"you see no one is here."
"To the chamber of Madame Dixmer," said the police agent, "perhaps he may be there?"
"Oh!" said Maurice, "respect the chamber of a woman."
"Certainly we will respect it," said Lorin, "and Madame Dixmer also, but for all that we must visit it."