Part 4 (1/2)
She looked at him askance, wondering if he was making fun of her. But he seemed quite serious.
”Well?” she asked, quivering with curiosity.
The light was beginning to wane. They had trotted at a good pace; and the hunt was returning as they neared La Mareze.
”Well,” he said, ”we shall get the rest of our information from people living round about ... from your uncle, for instance; and you will see how logically all the facts fit in. When you hold the first link of a chain, you are bound, whether you like it or not, to reach the last. It's the greatest fun in the world.”
Once in the house, they separated. On going to her room, Hortense found her luggage and a furious letter from Rossigny in which he bade her good-bye and announced his departure.
Then Renine knocked at her door:
”Your uncle is in the library,” he said. ”Will you go down with me? I've sent word that I am coming.”
She went with him. He added:
”One word more. This morning, when I thwarted your plans and begged you to trust me, I naturally undertook an obligation towards you which I mean to fulfill without delay. I want to give you a positive proof of this.”
She laughed:
”The only obligation which you took upon yourself was to satisfy my curiosity.”
”It shall be satisfied,” he a.s.sured her, gravely, ”and more fully than you can possibly imagine.”
M. d'Aigleroche was alone. He was smoking his pipe and drinking sherry. He offered a gla.s.s to Renine, who refused.
”Well, Hortense!” he said, in a rather thick voice. ”You know that it's pretty dull here, except in these September days. You must make the most of them. Have you had a pleasant ride with Renine?”
”That's just what I wanted to talk about, my dear sir,” interrupted the prince.
”You must excuse me, but I have to go to the station in ten minutes, to meet a friend of my wife's.”
”Oh, ten minutes will be ample!”
”Just the time to smoke a cigarette?”
”No longer.”
He took a cigarette from the case which M. d'Aigleroche handed to him, lit it and said:
”I must tell you that our ride happened to take us to an old domain which you are sure to know, the Domaine de Halingre.”
”Certainly I know it. But it has been closed, boarded up for twenty-five years or so. You weren't able to get in, I suppose?”
”Yes, we were.”
”Really? Was it interesting?”
”Extremely. We discovered the strangest things.”
”What things?” asked the count, looking at his watch.