"Does he know you?"
"I think not."
"In that case it will be all right. Appear to be looking out of the window."
De Mouy obeyed in silence, for La Mole was beginning to grow impatient, and was knocking on the door with all his might.
The Duc d'Alençon threw a last glance towards De Mouy, and seeing that his back was turned, he opened the door.
"Monseigneur le Duc!" cried La Mole, stepping back in surprise. "Oh, pardon, pardon, monseigneur!"
"It is nothing, monsieur; I needed your room to receive a visitor."
"Certainly, monseigneur, certainly. But allow me, I beg you, to take my cloak and hat from the bed, for I lost both to-night on the quay of the Grève, where I was attacked by robbers."
"In fact, monsieur," said the prince, smiling, himself handing to La Mole the articles asked for, "you are very poorly accommodated here. You have had an encounter with some very obstinate fellows, apparently!"
The duke handed to La Mole the cloak and the hat. The young man bowed and withdrew to the antechamber to change his clothes, paying no attention to what the duke was doing in his room; for it was an ordinary occurrence at the Louvre for the rooms of the gentlemen to be used as reception-rooms by the prince to whom the latter were attached.