"Why, didn't papa live with you?"
Madame Montoni blushed and turned her face away.
"No, my child, he couldn't; his business prevented him."
"My papa was very nice-looking, wasn't he, mamma?"
"Oh! yes, my child! he was as handsome as he was noble and generous; a little hasty only, and quick to lose his temper; that was the only fault I ever discovered in Adhémar. The last time he came to see us, he said to me: 'In a few days we will start for Italy; it is your native land, Julia, and I want to see it with you; then we will return to France and I will leave you no more.'"
"And you have never seen him since?"
"No; and no news of him, no letter! nothing from him! nothing!"
"But you must have made inquiries, have tried to learn something?"
"When a week had passed without my seeing Adhémar—ordinarily he never let more than two days pass without coming to us—I decided to go to the hotel where he had told me that he lived; it was one of the finest hotels in Paris. I asked for Monsieur Adhémar de—I asked for Monsieur Adhémar, and the concierge assured me that he had left the hotel six days before.
"'He can't have gone away,' I said; 'if he has, where has he gone?'