“Drusa had opened the door and a tall gendarme entered the room.”
Madame would not play, and I took her place, with Katy for my partner, and Jack and Sophie for our opponents. Sophie was an expert player, and chafed a little under Jack’s blunders. But, on the whole, we were getting on very well, and Sophie was dealing for the third hand, when old Drusa came in, unannounced, twisting her apron in her hands, and standing with her back to the door, as if to keep some one out.
“What is it, Drusa?” madame asked, and her voice shook a little.
“There is an officer here, asking to see you,” Drusa replied, in a whisper, which, nevertheless, seemed to me to fill the room from corner to corner with its dread meaning.
For an instant madame’s face blanched to the color of a corpse, and there was a look of anguish in her eyes, as she glanced at her daughter.
“An officer to see me! What does he want?” she whispered, for I was sure she could not speak aloud.
Sophie was perfectly calm, except for the hard expression on her face and the defiant look in her eyes.
“Don’t whisper,” she said, loud enough to be heard by anyone outside the door, if he were listening. “We have nothing to fear from a hundred officers. Show him in!”
“Oh, Sophie!” her mother gasped, but she was too late.