CHAPTER XXI
CITIZENESS PRIVAT
"Agatha," said Mademoiselle de Rochefort, "I am going back to Paris."
Agatha turned and looked at her mistress in the greatest surprise.
"Do I understand you, mademoiselle, or am I dreaming? It is impossible that you could have said"—
"I am going back to Paris."
Edmé repeated the words quietly, but there was a decision in her manner which Agatha understood full well. She gave a gasp of consternation and sank into a chair, fixing her wide-open eyes upon Edmé's face, while she waited to hear more.
Edmé was seated in her bedroom in the Castle of Hagenhof. It was evening, and two candles, one upon the dressing-table, the other upon a stand at Agatha's side, gave to the room a mild half-light. The curtains were not yet drawn, and through the large casement the stars gleamed softly.
"During the five months we have lived in absolute quiet and security here at Hagenhof," Edmé continued, looking out of the window at the forest of pine trees that stretched away from the castle like a sea of ink, "we have been completely shut off from the world outside, hearing almost nothing of the events taking place there."
"That was your wish, was it not?" asked Agatha as Edmé paused.