Without his hat, which the gardener removed as he rose on her approach, his face was seen to be round and comfortable. He seemed about fifty, hale and vigorous, with a twinkling eye. He thanked Mme de Trélan warmly, very warmly, for her kind thought, left his barrow, and betook himself up the great steps to the shelter of the colonnade, while she returned to her own quarters to make him some coffee.
By the time she brought it out to him he had finished his meal, and was standing in front of the boarded-up door looking at it. He turned round, took the cup from her with a little bow, and said,
“Madame, you do more in offering me this cup of coffee than you know. I am thirsty, it is true, but I am even more thirsty for talk with you.”
The Duchesse stared at him. He spoke with a slight accent, but his speech was educated.
“I have dug,” went on the gardener, sipping the coffee, “for three days in the garden, and I desire presently, with your permission, to dig in the château itself.”
“What, are you another of them?” cried Valentine involuntarily.
He smiled. “Even so, Madame. And since the arrest of M. de Brencourt has——”
“Precisely,” said the gardener, and he now gulped down the coffee.
“But,” objected the Duchesse, puzzled, “how is it that you confide in me so readily? With M. de Brencourt”—“it was different,” she was going on to say, but stopped, realising that she was on the verge of an indiscretion.
“Because in the first place,” said the new treasure-seeker, “I went, on the receipt of certain information, to those old MM. de Céligny to whom you so cleverly restored their interesting young relative; and from them—since the boy has returned to his grandfather—I learnt all that Roland had told them of your devotion.”
“Roland has gone, then?” said she, relieved. “He was well again?”
“Very nearly. The wound was not serious.”
“And the second gentleman—he who was arrested, M. de Brencourt?”
“He is still imprisoned in the Temple, but soon to leave it, I hope. He has found a venial guard, and . . . one has agents in Paris, you know, Madame. It is from them that I have learnt the facts about him.”
“I hope that you may not follow him to the Temple, Monsieur,” said Valentine, rather troubled.