"I will do as you say, monsieur, but what fears can you have on the subject?"
"I have no well-founded fears at all, my dear child. I consider the walling up of this door as, first, a matter of propriety, and subsequently as a matter of prudence. There is nothing in this to alarm you in the least. Now, au revoir. I am going to have a bout with your guardian, and hope to have some good news for you on my return."
A moment afterwards M. de Maillefort had reached the floor above. Seeing a key in the lock of the door in front of him, he opened this door, and, finding himself in a narrow passage, he followed this passage until he came to a second door, which he opened like the first and found himself in M. de la Rochaiguë's study.
That gentleman was seated with his back to the door, reading, in the morning paper, an account of the proceedings during the session of the Chamber of Peers the day before. Hearing the door open, he turned his head and saw the hunchback, who came briskly, even gaily, forward, and, giving him a friendly nod of the head, exclaimed, blithely:
"Good morning, my dear baron, good morning!"
M. de la Rochaiguë was too much astounded to utter a word.
Leaning back in his armchair, his hands still clutching the paper, he sat like one petrified, though his eyes were full of surprise and anger.
"You see, my dear baron, I am assuming all the privileges of an intimate friend and making myself quite at home," continued the hunchback, in the same jovial, almost affectionate tone, as he seated himself in an armchair near the fireplace.
M. de la Rochaiguë was fairly purple with rage by this time, but, having a wholesome fear of the marquis, he controlled his wrath as best he could, and said, rising abruptly:
"It seems incredible, unheard of, outrageous, that—that I should have your presence thus forced upon me, monsieur, after that scene the other evening, and—and—"