M. de Brevan nearly let the brush fall, with which he was polishing his finger-nails; but he mastered his confusion so promptly, that Daniel did not perceive it.
“Ah! you followed her,” he said in a voice which all his efforts could not steady entirely. “Then, of course, you know where she went.”
“Alas, no! She drove so fast, that, quick as I am, I could not follow her, and lost sight of her.”
Certainly M. de Brevan was breathing more freely, and said in an easy tone,—
“That is provoking, and you have lost a fine opportunity. I am, however, by no means astonished that you are at last enlightened.”
“Oh! I am so; you may believe me. And yet”—
“Well, yet?”
Daniel hesitated, for fear of seeing another sardonic smile appear on Maxime’s lips. Still making an effort, he replied,—
“Well, I am asking myself whether all that Miss Brandon states about her childhood, her family, and her fortune, might not, after all, be true.”
Maxime looked like a sensible man who is forced to listen to the absurd nonsense of an insane person.