"Why do you knock so at my door? It is a shame to wake me so suddenly! This will make me ill for a fortnight! I certainly shan’t go roaming about after the ghost! Let me sleep, I beg you; I have a sick headache."
"You shall have your sick headache some other night, sister," said Cornélie; "but as everybody else is up, you might as well do like the rest."
Eudoxie showed much temper, but finally came out of her room, half covered by a pelisse which she had thrown over her shoulders, and taking pains to stand in front of her door.
At that moment all the servants began to shriek at the top of their voices:
"There it is! It’s coming here!" they cried. And they ran to the other end of the gallery, pushing and jostling one another, while from the opposite direction advanced majestically a tall white figure, which was no other than Monsieur le Marquis de la Pincerie, who, with his tall, thin form, his fluttering night-shirt and his nightcap, might very well pass for a spectre.
Robineau had already taken aim at his future father-in-law, when he was recognized by his familiar cough.
"It is monsieur le marquis!" cried Robineau; "I believe that these fellows have become idiots."
"Certainly, it is I," said Monsieur de la Pincerie, stalking as proudly in his night-shirt as if he were in full uniform. "What has happened, in heaven’s name? Has anybody made an attack on the château?"
"Yes, what is it all about?" asked Alfred, who, in the midst of the uproar caused by the arrival of the marquis, had suddenly appeared among the company, no one knew whence.
"Ah, there you are, monsieur!" said Cornélie, with a sarcastic air. "For a gallant man, you are very slow in coming to the assistance of ladies."