"So much the better; in that case, nothing ever will. I was thinking that, as we are not always together—that is to say, in my absence you might have had visitors."
"You are mistaken, my dear; for me, you are never absent; you are constantly in my thoughts."
Adhémar put his mistress's hand to his lips. But in a few minutes his brow darkened anew; he drew a long breath, then exclaimed:
"This is very strange!"
"What is, my dear?"
"It smells of tobacco smoke here."
"Do you think so? I don't smell anything."
"Oh! that's because you don't choose to. It smells of tobacco, and of poor tobacco, too! I should think that someone had been smoking a pipe here."
Madame Dermont turned her head away as she replied:
"It may have been the water carrier who brought the smell here."