The femme de chambre now reëntered and said, "Madame is impatient at this delay; every moment seems an hour."
"Say that I will be with her immediately," answered Madeleine. She then addressed the count: "Have no fears,—you may depend upon me; the countess will receive you the moment her toilet is completed."
Madeleine once more embraced Bertha, once more extended her hand to Maurice, who stood bewildered, dismayed, looking half petrified, and passed out of the room.
As soon as she had disappeared, Bertha broke forth joyously, "Well, aunt, what do you think now of our Madeleine? Is not this magic? Is not this a fairy-like denouement? She disappears from the Château de Gramont as though the earth had opened to swallow her; no trace of her could be discovered for nearly five years, and suddenly she rises up in our very midst, a grand lady, enveloped in a cloud of mystery, and working as many wonders as a veritable witch. She leaves us poor, friendless, dependent; she returns to us rich, powerful, and with influential friends ready to serve those who once protected her. But I think I have found the key to the enigma. Did we not hear strict orders given that none but the Countess Orlowski should be admitted? Well, Madeleine was at once allowed to enter: it follows, beyond doubt, that she is the Countess Orlowski."
This version of Madeleine's position seemed to strike both the countess and her son as not merely possibly, but probably, correct.
"I always thought," returned the count, "that Madeleine was a young person who, in the end"—
His mother finished the sentence, in a tone of pride, "would prove herself worthy of the family to which she belongs."
The loud ringing of the street door-bell attracted the attention of the group assembled in the drawing-room. A well-known voice exchanged a few words with the servant, and Gaston de Bois entered. His manner was unusually perturbed, and he looked around the room as though in search of some one.
The instant he appeared, Bertha exclaimed, "Oh, M. de Bois! M. de Bois! We are all so much rejoiced! Madeleine, our own Madeleine, is found at last! She is here,—here in this very house, at this very moment!"
"I—I—I knew it!" answered M. de Bois, with a mixture of embarrassment and exultation.