“I ask you, madame,” resumed Adrienne, “where is M. Baleinier, who brought me hither?  I wish to see him instantly.”

“He is gone,” said the big woman.

“Gone!” cried Adrienne; “gone without me!—­Gracious heaven! what can be the meaning of all this?” Then, after a moment’s reflection, she resumed, “Please to fetch me a coach.”

The two women looked at each other, and shrugged their shoulders.  “I entreat you, madame,” continued Adrienne, with forced calmness in her voice, “to fetch me a coach since M. Baleinier is gone without me.  I wish to leave this place.”

“Come, come, madame,” said the tall woman, who was called “Tomboy,” without appearing to listen to what Adrienne asked, “it is time for you to go to bed.”

“To go to bed!” cried Mdlle.  Cardoville, in alarm.  “This is really enough to drive one mad.”  Then, addressing the two women, she added:  “What is this house? where am I? answer!”

“You are in a house,” said Tomboy, in a rough voice, “where you must not make a row from the window, as you did just now.”

“And where you must not put out the lamp as you have done,” added the other woman, who was called Gervaise, “or else we shall have a crow to pick with you.”

Adrienne, unable to utter a word, and trembling with fear, looked in a kind of stupor from one to the other of these horrible women; her reason strove in vain to comprehend what was passing around her.  Suddenly she thought she had guessed it, and exclaimed:  “I see there is a mistake here.  I do not understand how, but there is a mistake.  You take me for some one else.  Do you know who I am?  My name is Adrienne de Cardoville You see, therefore, that I am at liberty to leave this house; no one in the world has the right to detain me.  I command you, then, to fetch me a coach immediately.  If there are none in this quarter, let me have some one to accompany me home to the Rue de Babylone, Saint-Dizier House.  I will reward such a person liberally, and you also.”

“Well, have you finished?” said Tomboy.  “What is the use of telling us all this rubbish?”

“Take care,” resumed Adrienne, who wished to try every means; “if you detain me here by force, it will be very serious.  You do not know to what you expose yourselves.”

“Will you come to bed; yes or no?” said Gervaise, in a tone of harsh impatience.

“Listen to me, madame,” resumed Adrienne, precipitately, “let me out this place, and I will give each of you two thousand francs.  It is not enough?  I will give you ten—­twenty—­whatever you ask.  I am rich—­only let me out for heaven’s sake, let me out!—­I cannot remain here—­I am afraid.”  As she said this, the tone of the poor girl’s voice was heartrending.

“Twenty thousand francs!—­that’s the usual figure, ain’t it, Tomboy?”

“Let be, Gervaise! they all sing the same song.”

“Well, then? since reasons, prayers, and menaces are all in vain,” said Adrienne gathering energy from her desperate position, “I declare to you that I will go out and that instantly.  We will see if you are bold enough to employ force against me.”