"So I believe, Monsieur."
"My hat—thanks. The lights all out on the stairs and lobbies?"
"Yes, Monsieur."
"Go before—is that lighted?"
"Yes, sir."
This referred to one of those little black lanterns which belong to Spanish melodrama, with a semi-cylindrical horn and a black slide. We have most of us seen such, and handled if not possessed them.
"Leporello! hey, Jacques?" smiled Varbarriere sardonically, as he drew his short black cloak about him.
"Monsieur is always right," acquiesced the man, who had never heard of Leporello before.
"Get on, then."
And the valet before, the master following, treading cautiously, they reached the stair-head, where Varbarriere listened for a moment, then descended and listened again at the foot, and so through the hall into the long gallery, near the end of which is a room with a conservatory.