“The man in the brown wig?”
“Yes; a perilous looking personage, is he not, Fletcher?”
“How oddly Béranger behaved to you!” was Mr. Fletcher’s only reply.
“Yes, he was as stiff and formal as an Englishman; but I suppose that is his magisterial air.”
“M. Béranger stiff and formal!” exclaimed Mrs. Fletcher: “I never saw him so.”
“Nor I till to-day,” replied her husband. “Did you see where your brown-wigged friend came from, Byerley?”
“I saw him come out of a house, but I did not observe the house particularly.”
“He came out of Béranger’s office-door.”
“Indeed!” exclaimed Mr. Byerley, starting: “and yet he told me that he knew no one in this place, and should proceed on his journey south in a few hours.”
While this conversation passed, the girls were dressing to go out. Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher were glad of this, as they did not wish to communicate to Mary and Anna the vague uneasiness they began to feel respecting the consequences of this journey.