'She went out immediately after her arrival with Simon Fleix, sir, and has not yet returned,' he answered.
The words were scarcely out of his mouth before I heard several persons enter the passage below and begin to ascend the stairs. I did not doubt that mademoiselle and the lad had come home another way and been somehow detained; and I turned with a sigh of relief to receive them. But when the persons whose steps I had heard appeared, they proved to be only M. de Rosny's equerry, stout, burly, and bright-eyed as ever, and two armed servants.
CHAPTER XXII.
['LA FEMME DISPOSE.']
The moment the equerry's foot touched the uppermost stair I advanced upon him. 'Where is your mistress, man?' I said. 'Where is Mademoiselle de la Vire? Be quick, tell me what you have done with her.'
His face fell amazingly. 'Where is she?' he answered, faltering between surprise and alarm at my sudden onslaught. 'Here, she should be. I left her here not an hour ago. Mon Dieu! Is she not here now?'
His alarm increased mine tenfold. 'No!' I retorted, 'she is not! She is gone! And you--what business had you, in the fiend's name, to leave her here, alone and unprotected? Tell me that!'
He leaned against the balustrade, making no attempt to defend himself, and seemed, in his sudden terror, anything but the bold, alert fellow who had ascended the stairs two minutes before. 'I was a fool,' he groaned. 'I saw your man Simon here; and Fauchette, who is as good as a man, was with her mistress. And I went to stable the horses. I thought no evil. And now--My God!' he added, suddenly straightening himself, while his face grew hard and grim, 'I am undone! My master will never forgive me!'
'Did you come straight here?' I said, considering that, after all, he was no more in fault than I had been on a former occasion.
'We went first to M. de Rosny's lodging,' he answered, 'where we found your message telling us to come here. We came on without dismounting.'