“Here I am! What is it, sister?”

“A telegram,” cried the sister.

“A telegram? Don’t take the trouble to come up here, sister. I’ll come down to you.”

A few minutes later when she came back to the topmost terrace with a telegram in her hand, she looked distracted.

“It’s from my step-father,” she said.

“Bregeac?”

“Yes.”

“He is summoning you back to Paris?” Ralph said gravely.

“He will be here at any moment.”

“What for?”