He was silent, and Claire answered:
“I have told Jean that, since he is not to be trusted, I shall take care that he is not permitted to drive Monsieur Raoul any more.”
“Not to be trusted!” The new-comer had grown pale, her eyes wandered questioningly from one face to the other, and when she repeated her question it was in a faltering voice. “But where is he?”
“Apparently he has gone to the river.”
“To the river! Not alone?”
Mlle. Claire said, frigidly:
“Yes, it is inexcusable; but you may leave me to arrange matters. Take the carriage to the stables, Jean, without loitering by the way, and wait there until you are sent for. Come, Nathalie, we will go and look for him.”
Young Mme. de Beaudrillart, who had stood motionless for a moment, raised her hand and checked Jean as he was moving off.
“Pardon, Claire, that is not the best plan; for neither you nor I know anything. If you will be good enough to take charge of the carriage, the boy shall go with me and point out exactly where he lost sight of him. Come, Jean, at once.” And before her sister-in-law had time to recover from the amazement into which this unusual self-assertion had thrown her, she had walked rapidly away, followed by the reluctant Jean. He, too, was bewildered. In the storm of difficulty and reproach which he foresaw, the last person by whom he wished to find himself was Mme. Léon. If she were even disposed to befriend him, she would be ineffective. He had always been tacitly encouraged to disregard her orders, and under other circumstances would not have hesitated to do so now. But something strangely imperative in her tone, something so unexpected that it had discomfited even Mlle. Claire, completed his degradation, and compelled him against his will to follow. He wept, as much for shame as fear, as he stumbled along behind the quick, firm steps of his young mistress, and more than once when she flung him a question as to M. Raoul’s disappearance answered so helplessly that she turned upon him at last with sharp impatience.
“For Heaven’s sake, Jean, don’t be a fool! Show me the path, and cry when there is nothing else to be done. Was it here?”