Some days passed without any event which could satisfy either my love or my curiosity. Had Lerne grown suspicious of me, and contrived to have all my time taken up?
In the morning, he would invite me to accompany him—one day on foot, and another in the motor-car. During those outings we would talk at random of scientific matters, and he would question me as if he really wished to judge of my capabilities.
With the motor-car we used to cover much ground. In our walks, my uncle usually took the road which led straight to Grey. He would often stop, the better to hold forth, and never went beyond the skirts of the wood. Often in the midst of a dissertation or a jest, after we had started walking or driving, Lerne would suddenly go back, distrusting the people he had left at Fonval.
He also organized my afternoons for me; sometimes I was charged with a message for the town or the village, sometimes forced to go off by myself on some errand. I had either to fill up my tank without question, or put on my walking boots.
Lerne always watched me go, and at nightfall, standing on his doorstep, he exacted from me an account of my day. As the case might be, I had either to give a report of what I had done, or describe places.
Now, my uncle was not, as a rule, familiar with places, it is true, but I could not tell which ones, and so any made-up story would have been dangerous. I therefore conscientiously explored the forest and the countryside from dawn to dusk.
And yet, I should have liked to go to Emma’s room. I had calculated its place in the topography of the castle by the number of windows which were, or were not shut, and I knew them all thoroughly.
The whole left wing always remained closed. In the right wing, the ground floor, and, of the six bedrooms above, only three remained open for daily use. Mine was in the projecting part of the building, and, at the other end, the room of my Aunt Lidivine opened on the central corridor, and communicated with Lerne’s, so that Emma must have succeeded my aunt in my aunt’s own bed. The very thought of it maddened me, and I waited impatiently for the opportunity I sought.
But the Professor was keeping watch!
Under his pitiless tyranny, I saw Mlle. Bourdichet only at meal-times. We both put on a detached air. I now ventured to look at her, but I did not dare to speak to her. She persisted in a most absolute silence, so much so, that, in absence of conversation, I had to judge of her nature by her bearing, but I must admit that, however gross may be the human functions of feeding oneself on dead beasts and withered plants, there are two methods of eating. This lady thought nothing of taking the chicken bone, or cutlet bone in her fingers, and every time she gave herself up to this pleasure, I fancied I should hear her say, “My little duck,” in her plebeian voice.