Having placed her letter in an envelope, she laid it in full view on Saniel’s desk.
“Now let us go,” she said.
And as her mother sighed, while walking with difficulty
“Lean on me, dear mamma, you know I am strong.”
CHAPTER XLIV. AFTER LONG YEARS
Saniel did not return until quite late in the afternoon. When he opened the door with his key he was surprised at not seeing his wife run to him and kiss him.
“She is painting,” he said to himself, “she did not hear me.”
He passed into the parlor, convinced that he would find her at her easel; but he did not see her, and the easel was not in its usual place, there nor anywhere else.
He knocked at the door of Madame Cormier’s room; there was no reply; he knocked louder a second time, and after waiting a moment he entered. The room was empty; there was no bed, no furniture, no one.