"How often has she seen Pierre Leduc since I went away, ten days ago?"
"Three times; and she is to meet him to-day at Mrs. Kesselbach's, to whom she introduced him, as you said she must. Only, I may as well tell you that I don't think much of this Pierre Leduc of yours. Geneviève would do better to find some good fellow in her own class of life. For instance, there's the schoolmaster."
"You're mad! Geneviève marry a schoolmaster!"
"Oh, if you considered Geneviève's happiness first. . . ."
"Shut up, Victoire. You're boring me with your cackle. I have no time to waste on sentiment. I'm playing a game of chess; and I move my men without troubling about what they think. When I have won the game, I will go into the question whether the knight, Pierre Leduc, and the queen, Geneviève, have a heart or not."
She interrupted him:
"Did you hear? A whistle. . . ."
"It's the two Doudevilles. Go and bring them in; and then leave us."
As soon as the two brothers were in the room, he questioned them with his usual precision:
"I know what the newspapers have said about the disappearance of Lenormand and Gourel. Do you know any more?"