"Hallo, Paul! You did not expect to see me so soon, eh?"
But the man's expression told him instantly that something unusual had happened. His mother was ill perhaps—or Thérèse? He began to question the man anxiously, and when he reached him, stammered out—
"What is amiss? What is it? Oh, tell me quickly!"
In a few words the gardener told him all: how the home had been invaded; the arrest of the two women; the agent's rough, off-hand replies to Clarisse's entreaties and protestations; then their tears, their screams, and their hurried departure in the direction of Montmorency, hastened, no doubt, to avoid disturbing the little family gathering just near the Carrefour de la Chèvre.
Olivier, overpowered by the terrible details the gardener had been giving him, did not even think of asking to what family gathering he was alluding, but the name of the place, the Carrefour de la Chèvre struck him at once, and made him think of Vaughan.
"And the Englishman?" he asked.
"Which Englishman?" the gardener replied.
Olivier, seizing him nervously by the arm, hurriedly explained.
"You know that when I left this morning, Thérèse was alone.... My mother.... Did not she return afterwards with a stranger?"
"No," answered the gardener, "the citoyenne Durand returned alone, and even...."