Two days after these events, Adrienne received the following note from Rodin, in answer to a letter she had written him, to inform him of the work-girl’s inexplicable departure: 

“My dear young lady;—­Obliged to set out this morning for the factory of the excellent M. Hardy, whither I am called by an affair of importance, it is impossible for me to pay you my humble respects.  You ask me what I think of the disappearance of this poor girl?  I really do not know.  The future will, I doubt not, explain all to her advantage.  Only, remember what I told you at Dr. Baleinier’s, with regard to a certain society and its secret emissaries, with whom it has the art of surrounding those it wishes to keep a watch on.  I accuse no one; but let us only recall facts.  This poor girl accused me; and I am, as you know, the most faithful of your servants.  She possessed nothing; and yet five hundred francs were found in her secretary.  You loaded her with favors; and she leaves your house without even explaining the cause of this extraordinary flight.  I draw no conclusion, my dear young lady; I am always unwilling to condemn without evidence; but reflect upon all this, and be on your guard, for you have perhaps escaped a great danger.  Be more circumspect and suspicious than ever; such at least is the respectful advice of your most obedient, humble servant,

“Rodin.”

CHAPTER XLIX.

The Trysting-place of the wolves.

It was a Sunday morning the very day on which Mdlle. de Cardoville had received Rodin’s letter with regard to Mother Bunch’s disappearance.  Two men were talking to together, seated at a table in one of the public houses in the little village of Villiers, situated at no great distance from Hardy’s factory.  The village was for the most part inhabited by quarrymen and stonecutters, employed in working the neighboring quarries.  Nothing can be ruder and more laborious, and at the same time less adequately paid, than the work of this class of people.  Therefore, as Agricola had told Mother Bunch, they drew painful comparisons between their condition, almost always miserable, and the comfort and comparative ease enjoyed by M. Hardy’s workmen, thanks to his generous and intelligent management, and to the principles of association and community which he had put in practice amongst them.  Misery and ignorance are always the cause of great evils.  Misery is easily excited to anger, and ignorance soon yields to perfidious counsels.  For a long time, the happiness of M. Hardy’s workmen had been naturally envied, but not with a jealousy amounting to hatred.  As soon, however, as the secret enemies of the manufacturer, uniting with his rival Baron Tripeaud, had an interest in changing this peaceful state of things—­it changed accordingly.