“Yes, madame,” he replied at once. “Sit in that chair and listen to me. There are things you must know at once, because we have reached a dangerous hour.”
“The hat-pins first. The hat-pins!”
Rouletabille rose lightly from the bed and, facing her, but watching something besides her, said:
“It is necessary you should know that someone almost immediately is going to renew the attempt of the bouquet.”
Matrena sprang to her feet as quickly as though she had been told there was a bomb in the seat of her chair. She made herself sit down again, however, in obedience to Rouletabille’s urgent look commanding absolute quiet.
“Renew the attempt of the bouquet!” she murmured in a stifled voice. “But there is not a flower in the general’s chamber.”
“Be calm, madame. Understand me and answer me: You heard the tick-tack from the bouquet while you were in your own chamber?”
“Yes, with the doors open, naturally.”
“You told me the persons who came to say good-night to the general. At that time there was no noise of tick-tack?”
“No, no.”