“Callers at this time of day!” thought Thélénie; “why, we have invited nobody to dinner to-day, unless monsieur has taken the liberty; but that is not probable.—Can it be that people know already of the accident that must have happened to those two women?—But no matter; I must not act as if I were afraid of anybody!—Let us find out what all these people want.”
Messieurs Luminot and Remplumé, who were no more anxious than Chamoureau for a duel to the death, had carried out Paul Duronceray’s wishes to the letter.
On leaving him, they went first to Madame Droguet, whom they found bathing her husband’s jaw. To her they said:
“You are requested to be at Madame de Belleville’s at five o’clock to-day.”
“Are we invited to dinner again?”
“No, it is not a matter of dinner, but of an important meeting; something very interesting is going to happen; we don’t know yet what it is, but it’s something of very grave importance. Be sure to come; you are expected.”
With such words they could have made the ex-vivandière travel a hundred leagues.
In a small village, curiosity would make the very stones walk. With the same harangue Monsieur Luminot and his second set the whole neighborhood in a ferment.
That is why the salon of Goldfish Villa, at five o’clock that afternoon, contained almost as many people as on the day of the fête; only the guests from Paris were lacking.
Thélénie could not overcome a secret feeling of uneasiness when she saw all those people assembled under her roof. She observed, moreover, a certain embarrassment and constraint on those faces which were accustomed to smile upon her; for Luminot had already said to his intimate friends: