But, before he could draw his conclusions from this strange discovery, M. Thomas Elgin appeared in the room.  He was in evening costume, looking taller and stiffer than ever in his white cravat; and, as he came forward, he halted a little on one foot, though leaning upon a big cane.

“What, my dear Sir Thorn!” exclaimed the count, “your leg still gives you trouble?”

“Oh, a great deal!” replied the honorable gentleman, with a very marked English accent,—­“a great deal since this morning.  The doctor thinks there must be something the matter with the bone.”

At the same time, obeying the tendency which we all have to display our ailments, he slightly drew up his trousers, so that the bandages became visible which he wore around his leg.  Count Ville-Handry looked at it with pity; then, forgetting that he had introduced Daniel already the night before at the opera, he presented him once more; and, when the ceremony was over, he said to Sir Thorn,—­

“Upon my word, I am almost ashamed to appear so early; but I knew you expected company to-night.”

“Oh, only a few persons!”

“And I desired to see you for a few moments alone.”

A strange grimace represented the only smile of which the honorable gentleman was capable.  He made it twice, and then said, caressing his primly-cut whiskers,—­

“They have told Miss Sarah that you are here, my dear count; and I heard her tell Mrs. Brian that she was nearly ready.  I cannot imagine how she can spend so much time at her toilet.”

They were thus chatting away before the fireplace, Sir Thorn stretched out in an easy-chair, and the count leaning against the mantlepiece, while Daniel had withdrawn into the embrasure of a window which looked upon the court-yard and the garden behind the house.  There, his brow pressed against the cool window-panes, he was meditating.  He could not understand this wound of M. Elgin’s.

“Is it possible that his fall was an intentional fall?” he thought, “or did he really break his leg?  If he did so, that fainting-fit might have been natural, and not prearranged; but”—­

He was just plunging into these doubts and speculations, when the noise of a carriage entering the court-yard, aroused him from his thoughts.

He looked out.  A coupe had driven up to the back porch of the house.  A lady stepped out; and he was on the point of uttering a cry of surprise, for he thought he recognized Miss Sarah in that woman.  But could that be so?  He was unwilling to believe it, when she suddenly raised her head in order to speak to the coachman, and the light from the lamps fell full upon her face.

There was no doubt now on his mind.  It was Miss Brandon.

She flew up the steps, and entered the house.  He heard distinctly the heavy door close behind her.

At the opera, the night before, a single word uttered by Miss Brandon had sufficed to enlighten Daniel.  But now this was a very different matter.  It was a potent fact, unmistakable and tangible, which came to him in support of his suspicions.