“Then I may go with you?  You do not object to that?”

“I much prefer it—­much.  Do let us make haste!”

She snatched up her sealskin jacket, and held it to him prettily, that he might help her into it, which he did neatly and cleverly, smoothing her great puffed-out sleeves under each shoulder of the coat, still talking eagerly and taking no toll for his trouble as she stood patiently, passively before him.

“And this Hortense?  It is your maid, is it not—­the woman who had taken herself off?  How comes it that she is with that Italian fellow?  Upon my soul, I don’t understand—­not a little bit.”

“I cannot explain that, either.  It is most strange, most incomprehensible, but we shall soon know.  Please, Charles, please do not get impatient.”

They passed together down into the hotel courtyard and across it, under the archway which led past the clerk’s desk into the street.

On seeing them, he came out hastily and placed himself in front, quite plainly barring their egress.

“Oh, madame, one moment,” he said in a tone that was by no means conciliatory.  “The manager wants to speak to you; he told me to tell you, and stop you if you went out.”

“The manager can speak to madame when she returns,” interposed the General angrily, answering for the Countess.

“I have had my orders, and I cannot allow her—­”

“Stand aside, you scoundrel!” cried the General, blazing up; “or upon my soul I shall give you such a lesson you will be sorry you were ever born.”

At this moment the manager himself appeared in reinforcement, and the clerk turned to him for protection and support.

“I was merely giving madame your message, M. Auguste, when this gentleman interposed, threatened me, maltreated me—­”

“Oh, surely not; it is some mistake;” the manager spoke most suavely.  “But certainly I did wish to speak to madame.  I wished to ask her whether she was satisfied with her apartment.  I find that the rooms she has generally occupied have fallen vacant, in the nick of time.  Perhaps madame would like to look at them, and move?”

“Thank you, M. Auguste, you are very good; but at another time.  I am very much pressed just now.  When I return in an hour or two, not now.”

The manager was profuse in his apologies, and made no further difficulty.

“Oh, as you please, madame.  Perfectly.  By and by, later, when you choose.”

The fact was, the desired result had been obtained.  For now, on the far side from where he had been watching, Galipaud appeared, no doubt in reply to some secret signal, and the detective with a short nod in acknowledgment had evidently removed his embargo.

A cab was called, and Sir Charles, having put the Countess in, was turning to give the driver his instructions, when a fresh complication arose.

Some one coming round the corner had caught a glimpse of the lady disappearing into the fiacre, and cried out from afar.