'Yes, sir.'
'Where's the master?'
'I suppose he'll be here in a moment. I saw him speaking to one of the officers just now.'
De Meyrau descended the ladder, and seated himself at the stern of the boat. As the sailor he had just addressed was handing down his bag, a face with a red cap looked over the bulwarks.
'Hullo, my man!' cried De Meyrau, 'is this your boat?'
'Yes, sir, at your service,' answered the red cap, coming to the top of the ladder, and looking hard at the gentleman's stick and portmanteau.
'Can you take me to town, to Madame Bernier's, at the end of the new quay?'
'Certainly, sir,' said the boatman, scuttling down the ladder, 'you're just the gentleman I want.'
An hour later Hortense Bernier came out of the house, and began to walk slowly through the garden toward the terrace which overlooked the water. The servants, when they came down at an early hour, had found her up and dressed, or rather, apparently, not undressed, for she wore the same clothes as the evening before.