He heard Sabine's voice only a few feet from him, exclaiming:
"What are you all looking at, my dear Suzanne?"
"Mlle. Sabine!" Segoffin mentally exclaimed. "All is lost! Poor child! Such a revelation will kill her, I fear."
CHAPTER XVI.
SEGOFFIN'S RUSE.
On seeing Sabine, M. Floridor Verduron began his reverential evolutions all over again, and the girl returned his bows blushingly, for she had not expected to meet a stranger in the garden.
Segoffin, terrified at the thought that Cloarek's secret might be revealed at any moment, resolved to get the visitor away at any cost; so, interrupting him in the midst of his genuflections, he said:
"And now, M. Verduron, if you will come with me I will take you to monsieur at once."
"But my father has gone out, Segoffin," said Sabine.
"Never mind, mademoiselle, I know where to find him."
"But it would be much better for monsieur to wait for my father here, I think," insisted the girl. "He said he would soon be back, and if you go out in search of him you run a great risk of missing him, Segoffin, and of giving this gentleman a long walk for nothing, perhaps."