“Oh…” And Mattia opened his mouth as though he were swallowing a whole tart.
At each lock we had news of the Swan; every one had seen the beautiful barge and they spoke of the kind English lady and the little boy lying on a sofa under the veranda.
We drew nearer to Lise’s home, two more days, then one, then only a few hours. We came in sight of the house. We were not walking now, we were running. Capi, who seemed to know where we were going, started ahead at a gallop. He was going to let Lise know that we were coming. She would come to meet us. But when we got to the house there was a woman standing at the door whom we did not know.
“Where’s Madame Suriot?” we inquired.
For a moment she stared at us as though we were asking a foolish question.
“She doesn’t live here now,” she said at last; “she’s in Egypt.”
“In Egypt!”
Mattia and I looked at one another in amazement. Egypt! We did not know just where Egypt was situated, but we thought, vaguely, it was far away, very far, somewhere beyond the seas.
“And Lise? Do you know Lise?”
“The little dumb girl? Yes, I know her! She went off with an English lady on a barge.”