“Yes, monsieur; it has pearls on its nine points.”
“Very good. Go to the Mulet, and try to clap your eye on the tilbury of the gentleman who is stopping there, and then come and tell me what is painted on it. Do your business thoroughly, and bring me all the gossip of the inn. If you see the little groom, ask him at what hour to-morrow his master can receive the sub-prefect—in case you find the nine pearls. Don’t drink, don’t gossip yourself, and come back quickly; and as soon as you get back let me know it by coming to the door of the salon.”
“Yes, monsieur.”
The Mulet inn, as we have already said, stands on the square, at the opposite corner to the garden wall of the Marion estate on the other side of the road leading to Brienne. Therefore the solution of the problem could be rapid. Antonin Goulard returned to his place by Cecile to await results.
“We talked so much about the stranger yesterday that I dreamed of him all night,” said Madame Mollot.
“Ha! ha! do you still dream of unknown heroes, fair lady?” said Vinet.
“You are very impertinent; if I chose I could make you dream of me,” she retorted. “So this morning when I rose—”
It may not be useless to say that Madame Mollot was considered a clever woman in Arcis; that is, she expressed herself fluently and abused that advantage. A Parisian, wandering by chance into these regions, like the Unknown, would have thought her excessively garrulous.
“—I was, naturally, making my toilet, and as I looked mechanically about me—”
“Through the window?” asked Antonin.