Alfred followed Edouard; they went close to the door; but the most profound silence continued to reign in Isaure’s home.
Suddenly Edouard, struck by a sudden thought, exclaimed:
"Great heavens! here we are standing close against the door, and Vaillant does not bark, although he always divines the presence of a stranger a long distance away!"
"That is strange, in very truth," said Alfred.
"I cannot resist any longer, let us knock."
Edouard knocked on the door, gently at first, then a little louder; but no sound indicated that anyone proposed to admit them.
"Isaure! Isaure! it is I," said Edouard, standing under the window; "I have come to bid you farewell before going away from here. Are you not willing to see me?"
There was no reply. Edouard’s distress and excitement were extreme.
"Can it be that she has sworn never to speak to me again, not to listen to me?" he cried; and in his anger he knocked loudly on the door. Thereupon a low groan, a plaintive sound, which seemed to come from behind the house, answered the clamor that Edouard was making.
"Did you hear?" he asked Alfred.