They were kept in a state of nervous excitement, for they expected any day that they might be called before Cromillian to learn the decision to which he had come after visiting Bertha. Each naturally felt that his claim was the stronger and would be respected. Glynne considered that his rights as guardian were paramount, while Jack thought, if Bertha acknowledged her love for him, as he felt sure she would, that the verdict would be in his favour.
After leaving Barbera’s cabaret, Villefort had started off with the fixed intention of finding Cromillian and divulging Count Mont d’Oro’s plot against Vandemar Della Coscia, for he felt sure that his discovery of the dual identity of Victor Duquesne would be fully substantiated.
Villefort did not know where to find Cromillian. He had heard rumours of the location of the bandits’ camp—but camps can be easily changed from one place to another. They are like song-birds, or one’s good luck—here to-day and gone to-morrow.
He had heard that “All roads lead to Rome,” and it was equally true that all the roads in Corsica, within twenty miles, at least, led to Ajaccio. He knew that Cromillian’s emissaries came to town, usually disguised, and to do this they must follow the roads, or one of them.
By chance, for fortune favours wicked people as often as it does good ones, Villefort took the most direct road to Cromillian’s camp. After a long and weary tramp, he came to a small cottage, where he determined to ask for food and an opportunity to rest. As he neared the house, a girl about ten years of age opened the door and started to run down the path which led to the roadway, but, seeing Villefort, she stopped suddenly.
“Who lives here?” he asked.
“My mother,” said Lulie, for it was she.
“Yes, I suppose so,” remarked Villefort, “but what is your father’s name?”
“My father is dead: my mother is called the Widow Nafilet.”
Villefort started. He had heard that name before—but in what connection? He stood in deep thought, Lulie regarding him attentively, wondering, childlike, what the object of his visit could be, for few strangers were seen in that out-of-the-way locality. As the result of his deliberation, Villefort gave up for a time, at least, his intention of asking for food, and said: