“Pshaw!”

“Unconsciously, of course, having ran away from her like a fool, I was wandering about in the streets near her house, when I saw her come out in her coupe.”

“Oh, come!”

“I saw her as distinctly as I see you.  It was four o’clock in the morning, mind!”

“Is it possible?  And what did you do?”

“I followed her.”

M. de Brevan nearly let the brush fall, with which he was polishing his finger-nails; but he mastered his confusion so promptly, that Daniel did not perceive it.

“Ah! you followed her,” he said in a voice which all his efforts could not steady entirely.  “Then, of course, you know where she went.”

“Alas, no!  She drove so fast, that, quick as I am, I could not follow her, and lost sight of her.”

Certainly M. de Brevan was breathing more freely, and said in an easy tone,—­

“That is provoking, and you have lost a fine opportunity.  I am, however, by no means astonished that you are at last enlightened.”

“Oh!  I am so; you may believe me.  And yet”—­

“Well, yet?”

Daniel hesitated, for fear of seeing another sardonic smile appear on Maxime’s lips.  Still making an effort, he replied,—­

“Well, I am asking myself whether all that Miss Brandon states about her childhood, her family, and her fortune, might not, after all, be true.”

Maxime looked like a sensible man who is forced to listen to the absurd nonsense of an insane person.

“You think I am absurd,” said Daniel.  “Perhaps I am; but, then, do me the favor to explain to me how Miss Brandon, anxious as she must be to conceal her past, could herself point out to me the means to ascertain every thing about her, and even to learn the precise amount of her income?  America is not so far off!”

M. de Brevan’s face no longer expressed astonishment; he looked absolutely bewildered.

“What!” he cried out, “could you seriously think of undertaking a trip to America?”

“Why not?”

“To be sure, my dear friend, you are, in all sincerity, too naive for our age.  What! have you not yet been able to divine Miss Brandon’s plan?  And yet it is patent enough.  When she saw you, and had taken your measure, she said to herself, ’Here is an excellent young man who is in my way, excessively in my way; he must go and breathe a better air a few thousand miles off.’  And thereupon she suggested to you that pleasant trip to America.”

After what Daniel had learned about Miss Brandon’s character, this explanation sounded by no means improbable.  Nevertheless, he was not quite satisfied.  He objected to it thus:—­

“Whether I go or stay, the wedding will still take place.  Consequently, she has no interest in my being abroad.  Believe me, Maxime, there is something else underneath.  Outside of this marriage, Miss Brandon must be pursuing some other plan.”