“He has been in the army.”
“Oh! that isn’t the language of a soldier.—God grant, my dear master, that you do not repent the hospitality you have given to these people!”
“What are you afraid of?”
“I don’t know, but everything about them looks suspicious to me; even the silence of that other one, whose sinister expression does not indicate an honest heart.”
“Nonsense, Dupré! calm your excitement and go to bed. A night is soon passed.”
“Yes, when you sleep! but it is very long sometimes. What pleases me is that my room is next to yours; if you hear any noise, you will call me instantly, won’t you, monsieur?”
“Yes, my good Dupré; go now and don’t be frightened.”
Dupré left his master regretfully; the latter went to bed in perfect confidence, and soon forgot in sleep his old servant’s words.
Dupré’s room was on the first floor, adjoining Monsieur Gerval’s; but his door opened on the landing, from which one flight of stairs led up to the second floor and another down to the courtyard.
Tormented by an anxiety which he could not overcome, Dupré resolved to keep awake, and to try to clear up his suspicions. He looked from his window at the strangers’ apartment; the light was still burning.