"Listen."
The two friends listened breathlessly for several seconds, but the profound stillness was broken by no sound.
"I must have been mistaken, but I thought I heard a crackling sound in the shrubbery."
"It was the wind swaying the branches of that old cedar you see over there. Did you never notice what a peculiar sound evergreens make when the wind blows?" responded Florence, carelessly. Then she added: "And now I have explained this strange phenomenon, Valentine, listen to Michel's story and mine."
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE STRONGEST OF INCENTIVES.
MADAME D'INFREVILLE, recovering from the alarm she had felt for a moment, again turned to her friend, and said:
"Go on, Florence, I need not tell you with what curiosity, or rather with what intense interest, I am waiting."
"Ah, well then, my dear Valentine, one thing my husband cannot have told you, as he was not aware of the fact, is that I received a letter from Michel two days after your departure."
"And the object of this letter?"
"Knowing that you intended asking me to write a note to you conveying the impression that we had been spending a good deal of time together, Michel, hearing nothing from you, naturally became very uneasy, and, discovering you had left Paris in company with your mother, was anxious to ascertain where you had gone."