"And yourself?"
"Quite well, also. May I ask what has brought you into these parts, whom we thought in another and somewhat distant country?"
"Need you ask?"
They had drawn a little apart by this time, and the clerk heard no more; but their manner—the lady's especially—was so singular that he thought I ought to know that she was here under a false name, and so had sent Margery to me with the news. As for the gentleman and Madame Letellier, they were still conversing in the lowest tones together.
Interested intensely in this new development in the drama hourly unfolding before my eyes, I dismissed Margery with an instruction or two, and passed into the hidden chamber, where I again laid my ear to the wall. The mother would have something to say when she returned, and I determined to hear what it was.
I had to wait a long time, but was rewarded at last by the sound of voices and the distinct exclamation from the daughter's lips:
"Oh, mamma! what has happened?"
The mother's reply was delayed, but it came at last:
"My face is becoming strangely communicative. You will read all my thoughts next. What makes you think anything has happened? Is this a place for occurrences?"
"Oh, mamma! you cannot deceive me. Your very limbs are trembling. See, you can hardly stand; and then, how you look at me! Oh, mamma, dear! is it good news or bad? for from your eyes it might be either. Has he—"