When the three were at last alone, she paused before opening the letter and turned again to the messenger. She made a brave figure in the flood of sunlight that poured through the gules and azures of the long blazoned windows, her tall, lissome figure clad in a close-fitting robe of black velvet, her abundant glossy black hair rolled back under its white coif, her black eyes and scarlet lips detaching from the ivory of her face, in which no trace of emotion showed, for all the anxiety that consumed her.
“Where left you the Marquis de Condillac?” she asked the fellow.
“At La Rochette, madame,” the courier answered,’ and his answer brought Marius to his feet with an oath.
“So near?” he cried out. But the Dowager’s glance remained calm and untroubled.
“How does it happen that he did not hasten himself, to Condillac?” she asked.
“I do not know, madame. I did not see Monsieur le Marquis. It was his servant brought me that letter with orders to ride hither.”
Marius approached his mother, his brow clouded.
“Let us see what he says,” he suggested anxiously. But his mother did not heed him. She stood balancing the package in her hand.
“Can you tell us, then, nothing of Monsieur le Marquis?”
“Nothing more than I have told you, madame.”