‘What then shall I do?’ said Viviette.
Louis escaped the formidable difficulty of replying by pretending to continue his Havannah; and she, bowed down to dust by what she had revealed, crept from him into the house. Louis’s cigar went out in his hand as he stood looking intently at the ground.
XXXIX
Louis got up the next morning with an idea in his head. He had dressed for a journey, and breakfasted hastily.
Before he had started Viviette came downstairs. Louis, who was now greatly disturbed about her, went up to his sister and took her hand.
‘Aux grands maux les grands remedes,’ he said, gravely. ‘I have a plan.’
‘I have a dozen!’ said she.
‘You have?’
‘Yes. But what are they worth? And yet there must—there must be a way!’
‘Viviette,’ said Louis, ‘promise that you will wait till I come home to-night, before you do anything.’