Mademoiselle went in search of her master; but she soon returned and said:
“I have been to all the rooms you mentioned, madame, and I haven’t been able to find monsieur.”
“Then he must be in the garden; that man is intolerable—to make us hunt for him like this! he must know that it’s dinner-time. Tell Thomasseau to look for monsieur in the park, and let Lapierre help him; I am dying of hunger, and I am going to dine.”
Madame seated herself at the table and ate her soup. She came to the hors d’œuvre and still Chamoureau did not appear; but the gardener and the coachman reported that they had looked everywhere and that monsieur was certainly not in the garden or in the wood.
“This is very strange! Where has he hidden himself? Can he have fallen into some hole?”
“Oh! madame, there ain’t a single hole on your whole estate just now.”
“But the pond?”
“The pond’s only two feet and a half deep; you’d have to work pretty hard to drown yourself in it!—Besides, Monsieur de Belleville ain’t a child.”
“Madame,” said the maid, “monsieur was the first one to enter the house, and we haven’t seen or heard him since. It’s a very strange thing! He didn’t know the house, for it’s the first time he ever came here; he must have got lost in the cellar.”
“It is hardly probable that Monsieur de Belleville began by rushing down to inspect the cellar as soon as he got here. But no matter, let someone go and look.”