第33章 AN EMPTY ROOM.(5)

'Only explain it,or begone.'

'I crave leave to do both,madame,'I answered,collecting myself by an effort.'I ascended these stairs and opened your door in error--that is the simple fact--hoping to find a friend of mine here.I was mistaken,it seems,and it only remains for me to withdraw,offering at the same time the humblest apologies,'And as I spoke I bowed low and prepared to retire.

'One moment,sir!'she said quickly,and in an altered tone.

'You are,perhaps,a friend of M.de Bruhl--of my husband.In that case,if you desire to leave any message I will--I shall be glad to deliver it.'

She looked so charming that,despite the tumult of my feelings,Icould not but regard her with admiration.'Alas!madame,Icannot plead that excuse,'I answered.'I regret that I have not the honour of his acquaintance.'

She eyed me with some surprise.'Yet still,sir,'she answered,smiling a little,and toying with a gold brooch which clasped her habit,'you must have had some ground,some reason,for supposing you would find a friend here?'

'True,madame,'I answered,'but I was mistaken.'

I saw her colour suddenly.With a smile and a faint twinkle of the eye she said,'It is not possible,sir,I suppose--you have not come here,I mean,out of any reason connected with a--a knot of velvet,for instance?'

I started,and involuntarily advanced a step towards her.'Aknot of velvet!'I exclaimed,with emotion.'Mon Dieu!Then Iwas not mistaken!I have come to the right house,and you--you know something of this!Madame,'I continued impulsively,'that knot of velvet?Tell me what it means,I implore you!'

She seemed alarmed by my violence,retreating a step or two,and looking at me haughtily,yet with a kind of shame-facedness.

'Believe me,it means nothing,'she said hurriedly.'I beg you to understand that,sir.It was a foolish jest.'

'A jest?'I said.'It fell from this window.'

'It was a jest,sir,'she answered stubbornly.But I could see that,with all her pride,she was alarmed;her face was troubled,and there were tears in her eyes.And this rendered me under the circumstances only the more persistent.

'I have the velvet here,madame,'I said.'You must tell me more about it.'

She looked at me with a weightier impulse of anger than she had yet exhibited.'I do not think you know to whom you are speaking,'she said,breathing fast.'Leave the room,sir,and at once!I have told you it was a jest.If you are a gentleman you will believe me,and go.'And she pointed to the door.

But I held my ground,with an obstinate determination to pierce the mystery.'I am a gentleman,madame,'I said,'and yet I must know more.Until I know more I cannot go.'

'Oh,this is insufferable!'she cried,looking round as if for a way of escape;but I was between her and the only door.'This is unbearable!The knot was never intended for you,sir.And what is more,if M.de Bruhl comes and finds you here,you will repent it bitterly.'

I saw that she was at least as much concerned on her own account as on mine,and thought myself justified under the circumstances in taking advantage of her fears.I deliberately laid my cap on the table which stood beside me.'I will go madame,'I said,looking at her fixedly,'when I know all that you know about this knot I hold,and not before.If you are unwilling to tell me,Imust wait for M.de Bruhl,and ask him.'

She cried out 'Insolent!'and looked at me as if in her rage and dismay she would gladly have killed me;being,I could see,a passionate woman.But I held my ground,and after a moment she spoke.'What do you want to know?'she said,frowning darkly.

'This knot--how did it come to lie in the street below your window?I want to know that first.'

'I dropped it,'she answered sullenly.

'Why?'I said.

'Because--'And then she stopped and looked at me,and then again looked down,her face crimson.'Because,if you must know,'she continued hurriedly,tracing a pattern on the table with her finger,'I saw it bore the words "A MOI."I have been married only two months,and I thought my husband might find it--and bring it to me.It was a silly fancy.'

'But where did you get it?'I asked,and I stared at her in growing wonder and perplexity.For the more questions I put,the further,it seemed to me,I strayed from my object.

'I picked it up in the Ruelle d'Arcy,'she answered,tapping her foot on the floor resentfully.'It was the silly thing put it into my head to--to do what I did.And now,have you any more questions,sir?'

'One only,'I said,seeing it all clearly enough.'Will you tell me,please,exactly where you found it?'

'I have told you.In the Ruelle d'Arcy,ten paces from the Rue de Valois.Now,sir,will you go?'

'One word,madame.Did--'

But she cried,'Go,sir,go!go!'so violently,that after making one more attempt to express my thanks,I thought it better to obey her.I had learned all she knew;I had solved the puzzle.But,solving it,I found myself no nearer to the end Ihad in view,no nearer to mademoiselle.I closed the door with a silent bow,and began to descend the stairs,my mind full of anxious doubts and calculations.The velvet knot was the only clue I possessed,but was I right;in placing any dependence on it?I knew now that,wherever it had originally lain,it had been removed once.If once,why not twice?why not three times?