“Where was it?” asked Juliette immediately. “How I shall tease him!”
“On the boulevards. He’s coming here to-day, is he not?”
She was not vouchsafed any reply. The ladies had all at once become uneasy owing to the disappearance of the children, and called to them. However, two shrill voices immediately answered:
“We are here!”
Half hidden by a spindle tree, they were sitting on the grass in the middle of the lawn.
“What are you about?”
“We have put up at an inn,” answered Lucien. “We are resting in our room.”
Greatly diverted, the women watched them for a time. Jeanne seemed quite contented with the game. She was cutting the grass around her, doubtless with the intention of preparing breakfast. A piece of wood, picked up among the shrubs, represented a trunk. And now they were talking. Jeanne, with great conviction in her tone, was declaring that they were in Switzerland, and that they would set out to see the glaciers, which rather astonished Lucien.
“Ha, here he is!” suddenly exclaimed Pauline.
Madame Deberle turned, and caught sight of Malignon descending the steps. He had scarcely time to make his bow and sit down before she attacked him.