“It is evident that I did not rouse you,” she retorted tartly. “You do not look as if you had come from your couch.”
By this time the councillor had come up the stair and stood behind his wife, a few steps below us. Zénaïde, ignoring madame’s reply, greeted him with quiet courtesy, and invited them to enter the salon, ordering Touchet to bring fresh tapers, for those upon the table were already exhausted. Madame Zotof, with an eager air, hurried into the room behind my wife, and looked about, apparently for some token of her truant niece, but there was no sign of her recent presence. The apartment was in order, and the logs had burned down on the hearth, so that there was a chill in the atmosphere. Zotof, following his wife, stood in the center of the room, but seemed conscious that, for the time, there was no need of speech from him, madame, as usual, taking the lead.
“Be seated by the fire, for it grows cold here,” Zénaïde said easily; “and, Touchet, bring hither some wine.”
“We do not want it,” Madame Zotof exclaimed angrily; “we did not come out at two in the morning for entertainment. I came here for that mad niece of ours, Madame de Brousson, and I would thank you to order her to join me immediately; her conduct is unpardonable.”
Zénaïde looked at her with mild surprise. “You labor under a delusion, Madame Zotof,” she said gently; “mademoiselle your niece is not here.”
Madame Zotof stared at her with exasperation showing in every line of her face.
“It is you, Madame de Brousson, who labor under a mistake,” she replied with a mocking imitation of Zénaïde’s manner. “A little bird told me that my niece was here, and that it would be wise for you to surrender her to her guardians.”
Zénaïde smiled. “It is unwise to listen to the counsel of little birds, madame,” she remarked sweetly, “since your little bird was possessed of the spirit of untruth.”
“It was not so small a bird as you think,” Madame Zotof exclaimed. “It was a double-headed eagle, and it spoke the truth.”
“How could it,” Zénaïde said with a little laugh, “since it was double-tongued and therefore versed in duplicity?”