"None."
"What, madame! no letter, and no word?"
"You will simply tell him that I smiled when I read his letter, and that I placed it—here."
Valentine, as she spoke, slipped the letter into her bosom.
At that moment, Miretta hurriedly moved a chair.
"My husband is coming—let me have the paper—quickly!"
"Here it is, madame; also a quill and an inkhorn; we always have them about us.—Omit one of your baptismal names," he added, in an undertone; "that will give me a pretext for coming again, and I fancy that it may be necessary."
The Marquis de Santoval entered his wife's room and scrutinized the little clerk, who bowed to the floor. The marquis paused in the middle of the room, saying:
"I disturb you, madame; you have visitors."
"Not at all, monsieur. My aunt, Madame de Ravenelle, has sent her solicitor's clerk with this document for me to sign. It is nothing very interesting, as you see—the sale of an old house, I believe, is it not?"