"Wait a little, my child. Don't praise me too soon. Now, one thing more. Didn't you tell me that there was a back stairway that led up to your guardian's rooms?"
"Yes, monsieur, several of his intimate friends, who are never formally announced, always make use of it mornings."
"Very well; I propose to play the part of an intimate friend myself, then, and give the baron a surprise. Show me the way, my child."
As they were passing through Madame Laîné's room, Ernestine paused and said to the hunchback:
"I have always forgotten to tell you how I managed to leave the house unobserved the night I went to Madame Herbaut's party, M. de Maillefort. That door you see over there opens upon another back stairway that leads down to the street. The door at the foot of it was nailed up a long time ago, but my governess succeeded in opening it, and it was through that door we left the house and entered it."
"Has this door been securely nailed up again?" inquired the hunchback, thoughtfully.
"My governess told me that she had fastened it securely on the inside."
"My dear child, your governess is an unprincipled woman. She assisted you in making your escape from the house and also favoured your long visits to Herminie. No matter how reprehensible your motives had been, she would have obeyed you just the same, so she is not to be trusted."
"I have no confidence in her, of course, M. de Maillefort, and, as soon as I can, I intend to pay her liberally, as I promised, and send her away."
"This door, which affords such easy access to your apartments and which is so entirely at this woman's disposal, seems to me a very bad thing," remarked the hunchback. "You had better tell your guardian to-day that you have discovered this door, and ask him to have it walled up as soon as possible, or else give you some other room."