"At Pompignat station, where I came from? But they would have passed through the village."
"They have gone just the other way, because it leads to the town, where the express trains stop. The procurator-general has an office in the town. I'll telephone; and, as there's no train before eleven o'clock, all that they need do is to keep a watch at the station."
"I think you're doing the right thing, sergeant," said Rénine, "and I congratulate you on the way in which you have carried out your investigation."
They parted. Rénine went back to the inn in the village and sent a note to Hortense Daniel by hand:
"MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,
"I seemed to gather from your letter that, touched as always by
anything that concerns the heart, you were anxious to protect the
love-affair of Jérôme and Natalie. Now there is every reason to
suppose that these two, without consulting their fair protectress,
have run away, after throwing Mathias de Gorne down a well.
"Forgive me for not coming to see you. The whole thing is extremely
obscure; and, if I were with you, I should not have the detachment
of mind which is needed to think the case over."
It was then half-past ten. Rénine went for a walk into the country, with his hands clasped behind his back and without vouchsafing a glance at the exquisite spectacle of the white meadows. He came back for lunch, still absorbed in his thoughts and indifferent to the talk of the customers of the inn, who on all sides were discussing recent events.
He went up to his room and had been asleep some time when he was awakened by a tapping at the door. He got up and opened it:
"Is it you?... Is it you?" he whispered.