"Do you suppose," asked Claude, "that you will ever be in any way connected with their plans?"
He put this question, which was a general one, in a very peculiar tone, which indicated some deeper meaning. It seemed as though Mimi understood him, for she threw at him a hurried and half-frightened look.
"Why?" she asked. "What makes you ask such a question as that?"
"O, I don't know," said Claude. "The thought merely entered my mind—perhaps because I dislike him, and suspect him, and am ready to imagine all kinds of evil about him."
Mimi regarded him now with a very earnest look, and said nothing for some time.
"Have you any recollection," she asked, at length, "of ever having seen his face anywhere, at any time, very long ago?"
Claude shook his head.
"Not the slightest," said he. "I never saw him in all my life, or any one like him, till I saw him on the raft. But what makes you ask so strange a question?"
"I hardly know," said Mimi, "except that he seems so in papa's confidence,—and I know that papa's chief trouble arises from some affair that he had with some Montresor,—and I thought—well, I'll tell you what I thought. I thought that, as this Montresor had to leave France—that perhaps he had been followed to America, or sought after; and, as you are a member of that family, you might have seen some of those who were watching the family; and the Count do Cazeneau seemed to be one who might be connected with it. But I'm afraid I'm speaking in rather a confused way; and no wonder, for I hardly know what it is that I do really suspect."
"O, I understand," said Claude; "you suspect that my father was badly treated, and had to leave France, and that this man was at the bottom of it. Well, I dare say he was, and that he is quite capable of any piece of villany; but as to his hunting us in America, I can acquit him of that charge, as far as my experience goes, for I never saw him, and never heard of any one ever being on our track. But can't you tell me something more definite about it? Can't you tell me exactly what you know?"