"Home!" he said, abruptly.
"To the hôtel!" said the footman to Edwards, as he closed the door.
We may imagine how bitter and desolating were Saint-Remy's thoughts as he returned to his house. At the moment when he reached it, Boyer, who awaited him at the portico, said to him:
"M. le Comte is above, and waits for M. le Vicomte."
"Very well."
"And there is also a man whom your lordship appointed at ten o'clock,—a M. Petit-Jean."
"Very well. Oh, what an evening party!" said Florestan, as he went up-stairs to see his father, whom he found in the salon on the first floor, the same room in which their meeting of the morning had taken place. "A thousand pardons, my father, that I was not awaiting you when you arrived; but I—"
"Is the man here who holds the forged bill?" inquired the comte, interrupting his son.
"Yes, father, he is below."
"Desire him to come up."