"You must excuse me, monsieur and madame," she exclaimed, "but there is
no other room free just now. The place is full."
Then she carried her keen glances from Mathieu to Constance, preferring
to wait until she was questioned, since another person was now in the
secret.
"You can speak out," said Mathieu. "Did you make the inquiries I spoke to
you about?"
"Certainly, monsieur. They were made, and properly made, I think."
"Then tell us the result: I repeat that you can speak freely before this
lady."
"Oh! monsieur, it won't take me long. You were quite right: there were
two apprentices at the wheelwright's at Saint-Pierre, and one of them was
Alexandre-Honore, the pretty blonde's child, the same that we took
together over yonder. He had been there, I found, barely two months,
after trying three or four other callings, and that explains my ignorance
of the circumstance. Only he's a lad who can stay nowhere, and so three
weeks ago he took himself off."
Constance could not restrain an exclamation of anxiety: "What! took
himself off?"
"Yes, madame, I mean that he ran away, and this time it is quite certain
that he has left the district, for he disappeared with three hundred
francs belonging to Montoir, his master.
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