“What! Do you suppose—” said Monsieur de l’Estorade, not finishing his idea.
“I don’t know; but monsieur has been very gloomy the last few days.”
“To break the seal of a letter not addressed to us is always a serious thing to do,” remarked the peer of France. “This bears my wife’s address, but—in point of fact—it was never sent to her; in short, it is most embarrassing.”
“But if by reading it some misfortune might be averted?”
“Yes, yes; that is just what keeps me in doubt.”
Here Madame de l’Estorade cut the matter short by entering the room. Lucas had told her of the unexpected arrival of Philippe.
“Is anything the matter?” she asked with anxious curiosity.
The apprehensions Sallenauve had expressed the night before as to Marie-Gaston’s condition returned to her mind. As soon as Philippe had repeated the explanations he had already given to her husband, she broke the seals of the letter.
Whatever may have been the contents of that disquieting epistle, nothing was reflected on Madame de l’Estorade’s face.
“You say that your master left Ville d’Avray in company with an English gentleman,” she said to Philippe. “Did he seem to go unwillingly, as if yielding to violence?”