"Great Scott!" replied Marcel, looking at Delapine in astonishment.
"I must ask you as a favour, gentlemen, not to speak of this painful incident to anyone again," said the professor, "as Monsieur Payot will not have the slightest inkling of it when he wakes up."
"Now," said Delapine, as Riche and Villebois returned from the adjoining room, "let us attend to the ladies."
By repeated applications of smelling salts Madame Villebois was soon brought round, and she was conveyed to her room by her husband.
During their absence the poet went to his room, and with Villebois' assistance, removed all traces of his recent fight, and putting on a fresh collar made himself presentable once more.
"I feel as fresh as a fiddle now, thanks to my wash and brush down."
"If you will not mind waiting for me in the library until I have fixed things up I should be awfully obliged," said Delapine, "as I must see after the two young ladies."
The professor went downstairs and proceeded to pacify Renée by assuring her that her father would wake up perfectly calm, and utterly oblivious of his terrible outburst of temper.
"Are you quite sure he will not remember what has occurred?" she asked.