"What's the matter?" asked Marthe.
"I can't find Morestal's stick. And yet it's always here."
"He must have put it down somewhere else."
"Impossible! If so, it would be the first time in his life. I know him so well!... What can it mean?... Victor!"
The man ran into the hall:
"Yes, ma'am?"
"Victor, why isn't your master's cane here?"
"I have a notion, ma'am, that the master has gone out."
"Gone out! But you ought to have told me.... I was beginning to be anxious."