Alfred could not avoid a secret thrill of emotion at the demeanor of that strange man.
"But," he said after a moment, "how do you get into the château?"
"Oh! that is very simple; near the little summerhouse in the garden, behind the statue of Mars, there is a little gate which has all the appearance of being condemned, because no one uses it; it happens that I still have the key to this gate, which opens into the fields. That is the way that I get into the garden; and from the garden it is not difficult to come here by following the main path, then the terrace; and without entering by the door you opened, one can go through the cellars and up to the ground floor."
"I see that you know the château perfectly, better, I am inclined to think, than the man who has bought it."
"In my childhood I have so often run through these corridors, these secret passages! In those days I was romantic, too. This Gothic château seemed to me well suited to the marvelous adventures of the days of chivalry; and I should have been overjoyed to meet a phantom in the vaults of this tower; but I never had that pleasure."
"But you must have expected to be seen, walking about with a light through these rooms?"
"There have been only two nights that I have lighted this little lantern with my flint and steel; I supposed that everybody in the château was asleep, and that they would not see the light in this tower. I could not resist the desire to see, to examine once more various things which I formerly—which were used long ago by the persons who lived in this château; and as there is not always a moon, you will agree that it would have been rather difficult to have gratified my curiosity without a light."
"Do you know that if anyone but myself had fallen in with you by night, you would have been arrested, imprisoned perhaps?"
"When one has reached the point where I am, what more has one to fear? Besides, I knew very well that no one in this château, except you and your friend, would be tempted to come to this tower at night; and indeed, if I had chosen to drive them all from the château, I should only have had to walk in the direction of the inhabited apartments at night with a sheet over my head; I will answer for it that the present owner would have been the first to take flight; but, I say again, I have never intended to frighten anybody, or to take anything from anybody; if I did frighten the old gardener once, I did it unintentionally; I did not expect to meet him in the garden so late."
"I believe you," said Alfred. "But let us come to what concerns me; you say that it is I whom you came here to see to-night. What have you to say to me? Speak."