before.  Generally the impression was that of entering an untenanted house, but this time before I could reach the foot of the stairs Therese glided out of the passage leading into the studio.  After the usual exclamations she assured me that everything was ready for me upstairs, had been for days, and offered to get me something to eat at once.  I accepted and said I would be down in the studio in half an hour.  I found her there by the side of the laid table ready for conversation.  She began by telling me—­the dear, poor young Monsieur—­in a sort of plaintive chant, that there were no letters for me, no letters of any kind, no letters from anybody.  Glances of absolutely terrifying tenderness mingled with flashes of cunning swept over me from head to foot while I tried to eat.

“Are you giving me Captain Blunt’s wine to drink?” I asked, noting the straw-coloured liquid in my glass.

She screwed up her mouth as if she had a twinge of toothache and assured me that the wine belonged to the house.  I would have to pay her for it.  As far as personal feelings go, Blunt, who addressed her always with polite seriousness, was not a favourite with her.  The “charming, brave Monsieur” was now fighting for the King and religion against the impious Liberals.  He went away the very morning after I had left and, oh! she remembered, he had asked her before going away whether I was still in the house.  Wanted probably to say good-bye to me, shake my hand, the dear, polite Monsieur.

I let her run on in dread expectation of what she would say next but she stuck to the subject of Blunt for some time longer.  He had written to her once about some of his things which he wanted her to send to Paris to his mother’s address; but she was going to do nothing of the kind.  She announced this with a pious smile; and in answer to my questions I discovered that it was a stratagem to make Captain Blunt return to the house.

“You will get yourself into trouble with the police, Mademoiselle Therese, if you go on like that,” I said.  But she was as obstinate as a mule and assured me with the utmost confidence that many people would be ready to defend a poor honest girl.  There was something behind this attitude which I could not fathom.  Suddenly she fetched a deep sigh.

“Our Rita, too, will end by coming to her sister.”

The name for which I had been waiting deprived me of speech for the moment.  The poor mad sinner had rushed off to some of her wickednesses in Paris.  Did I know?  No?  How could she tell whether I did know or not?  Well!  I had hardly left the house, so to speak, when Rita was down with her maid behaving as if the house did really still belong to her. . .