The doctor's face was dark with anger.
"The ingrate has left me, after all. He has gone to his child, who is not sick at all, I dare say. Well, he will repent it. I will not take him back."
Here the doctor paused. It would be exceedingly inconvenient to lose Francois, who, besides being a capable man, accepted very small pay.
"At any rate I will lower his wages!" he said. "He shall regret the way he has served me."
It was a temporary inconvenience. Still there was an outside man whom he could impress into the service as a substitute, and in a day or two Francois would be glad to return. It was not, perhaps, so serious a matter, after all.
But M. Bourdon changed his mind when he found the front door unlocked.
"Who had escaped, if any?"
This was the question he asked himself. In great haste he went from one room to another, but all seemed to be occupied. It was only when he opened Ben's room that he ascertained that the one whom he would most regret to lose had decamped. Ben's bed, too, was but little disturbed. He had slept on the outside, if he had slept at all, but not within the bed, as was but too evident.
"Has any one seen the boy?" demanded M. Bourdon of an outdoor servant who slept outside, but was already on duty.
"Not I, Monsieur le Docteur."