But Corancez was just the man to undertake such a conciliatory mission upon his own responsibility. He had gone to Ely's villa the night before to tell her the same story and to ask of her the same service. He had naturally spoken of Hautefeuille, and he had suspected a quarrel. This strange creature had a real affection, almost a religion, for Pierre. He felt a tender gratitude to Ely. Forgetting his own story, of which he was nevertheless very proud, he at once began to try to bring the two lovers together again. With all his intelligence he could not guess the truth of the tragedy being enacted in the souls of these two beings. He had seen them so loving and so happy together! He thought that to tell Pierre that Ely was suffering would be sufficient to bring him back to her.
"Is it long since you saw Madame de Carlsberg?" he asked, after having finished commenting upon his adventure, which he did very modestly, for he was amiable enough in his triumph.
"Not for several days," replied Hautefeuille. And the question made his heart beat.
In order to keep his word scrupulously, he ought not to have permitted his wily friend to go any further. On the contrary, he could not resist asking:—
"Why?"
"Oh, nothing," said Corancez. "I only wished to ask your opinion about her. I am not satisfied that she is very well. She was very charming last night, as usual, but nervous and melancholy. I am afraid her household affairs are going from bad to worse, and that brute of an Archduke is leading her a life of martyrdom—all the more because she has helped Verdier to marry Miss Marsh. Did you not know? Dickie, our friend of the Jenny, has left for the East with the Chésys, his niece, and Verdier on board. You can just imagine the Prince's fury."
"So you think he is cruel with her?" asked Pierre.
"I don't think it, I am sure. Go and see her, it will do her good. She feels a real affection for you. Of that I am convinced. And she was thinking about you, I feel certain, when she said that all her friends had abandoned her."
So she was unhappy! While Corancez was speaking, it seemed to Pierre that he heard the echo of the sigh that had issued from the heart of the woman he loved so much! He saw again the sad, longing look of the mistress he judged so harshly. This indirect contact with her, short as it was, moved him deeply—so deeply, in fact, that Olivier noticed his agitation. He immediately suspected that something had happened.
"I met Corancez leaving the hotel," he said. "Did you see him?"