“Is it true?” she asked.  “It is true!  I believe you!”

She took his hand, and gazed at him a moment without speaking—­her eye dimmed, her bosom palpitating; then suddenly rising, she said, “My friend, you know I have guests!” and saluting him with a smile, left the boudoir.

This scene, however, left a disagreeable impression on the mind of Camors.  He thought of it impatiently the next morning, while trying a horse on the Champs Elysees—­when he suddenly found himself face to face with his former secretary, Vautrot.  He had never seen this person since the day he had thought proper to give himself his own dismissal.

The Champs Elysees was deserted at this hour.  Vautrot could not avoid, as he had probably done more than once, encountering Camors.

Seeing himself recognized he saluted him and stopped, with an uneasy smile on his lips.  His worn black coat and doubtful linen showed a poverty unacknowledged but profound.  M. de Camors did not notice these details, or his natural generosity would have awakened, and curbed the sudden indignation that took possession of him.

He reined in his horse sharply.

“Ah, is it you, Monsieur Vautrot?” he said.  “You have left England then!  What are you doing now?”

“I am looking for a situation, Monsieur de Camors,” said Vautrot, humbly, who knew his old patron too well not to read clearly in the curl of his moustache the warning of a storm.

“And why,” said Camors, “do you not return to your trade of locksmith?  You were so skilful at it!  The most complicated locks had no secrets for you.”

“I do not understand your meaning,” murmured Vautrot.

“Droll fellow!” and throwing out these words with an accent of withering scorn, M. de Camors struck Vautrot’s shoulder lightly with the end of his riding-whip, and tranquilly passed on at a walk.

Vautrot was truly in search of a place, had he consented to accept one fitted to his talents; but he was, as will be remembered, one of those whose vanity was greater than his merit, and one who loved an office better than work.

CHAPTER XX

THE SECOND ACT OF THE TRAGEDY

Vautrot had at this time fallen into the depth of want and distress, which, if aggravated, would prompt him to evil and even to crime.  There are many examples of the extremes to which this kind of intelligence, at once ambitious, grasping, yet impotent, can transport its possessor.  Vautrot, in awaiting better times, had relapsed into his old role of hypocrite, in which he had formerly succeeded so well.  Only the evening before he had returned to the house of Madame de la Roche-Jugan, and made honorable amends for his philosophical heresies; for he was like the Saxons in the time of Charlemagne, who asked to be baptized every time they wanted new tunics.  Madame de la Roche-Jugan had given a kind reception to this sad prodigal son, but she chilled perceptibly on seeing him more discreet than she desired on certain subjects, the mystery of which she had set her heart upon unravelling.