"Continue to watch. The sight of that man makes me tremble for her! But the day of reckoning must come some time!"
"Explain yourself! Do you want me to run after the fellow and arrest him?"
"No, no! that's not the way I must deal with him. But we will watch him, and an opportunity will soon come—with that man they must come frequently—and then——"
"Then we will annihilate him, won't we?"
"Au revoir, Ballangier! I must dine. But, I repeat, watch over Mignonne more carefully than ever."
"Oh! you have no need to urge that on me."
I entered a restaurant, dined in hot haste, and went to Madame Dauberny's house.
"Madame is not in," said the concierge.
"You mean that she is not receiving, for she must be at home; did she not return from the country to-day?"
"Yes, monsieur; madame returned to-day. But I assure you that she went out this evening, not very long ago; and I believe I heard someone say that she was going to the Opéra."