For a moment Mme. Gypsy hesitated.
“Oh,” she said, “you are so kind that I am tempted to confide in you; read this note which a messenger just now brought to me.”
“What!” cried Mme. Alexandre perfectly aghast: “a messenger enter my house, and go up to your room!”
“Is there anything surprising in that?”
“Oh, oh, no! nothing surprising.”
And in a tone loud enough to be heard in the closet she read the note:
“A friend of Prosper who can neither receive you, nor present himself at your house, is very anxious to speak to you. Be in the stage-office opposite the Saint Jacques tower, to-night at nine precisely, and the writer will approach, and tell you what he has to say.
“I have appointed this public place for the rendezvous so as to relieve your mind of all fear.”
“And you are going to this rendezvous?”
“Certainly, madame.”