I was still in the midst of my surprise, when the door opened with a very slight creak, and in walked a slim figure so silently that I knew it was without shoes.
"Is that you, Monsieur de Pepicot?" I asked.
"H'sh," he replied in a whisper, closing the door carefully. "Don't disturb the slumbers of the household. You are very wakeful."
"No more so than you are, it seems," I said.
"That is true. I often suffer from sleeplessness, and I find a walk is the thing to put me right."
"You were wise to take a light with you on your walk," I observed, for he now produced a small lantern from under his loose-fitting doublet, where it had been entirely concealed.
"Yes; one might hurt one's toes in these dark passages," he answered, and placidly drew some papers from his breast pocket, folded them carefully by the lantern's light, and then as carefully replaced them. "I trust you made some progress in your affair here during the afternoon."
"Yes. But you were kept busy with the Count."
"Oh, I don't complain. I was about to say that if you preferred to leave the house to-night, no doubt I could manage it for you."
"Why should I prefer to leave to-night?"