"You are right," said Agricola; "it is indispensable that I should depart--while near Gabriel in spite of my anxiety, my fears were forgotten."
"Go quickly, then; and if Miss de Cardoville should grant this favor, perhaps in a couple of hours you will return, quite at ease both as to yourself and us."
"True! a very few minutes more; and I'll come down."
"I return to watch at the door.If I perceive anything.I'll come up again to apprise you.But pray, do not delay."
"Be easy, good sister." Mother Bunch hurriedly descended the staircase, to resume her watch at the street door, and Agricola re-entered his garret."Dear father," he said to Dagobert, "my mother has just received this letter, and she requests you to read it."
"Very well; read it for me, my boy." And Agricola read as follows:
MADAME.--I understand that your husband has been charged by General Simon with an affair of very great importance.Will you, as soon as your husband arrives in Paris, request him to come to my office at Chartres without a moment's delay.I am instructed to deliver to himself, and to no other person, some documents indispensable to the interests of General Simon.
"DURAND, Notary at Chartres."
Dagobert looked at his son with astonishment, and said to him, "Who can have told this gentleman already of my arrival in Paris?"
"Perhaps, father," said Agricola, "this is the notary to whom you transmitted some papers, and whose address you have lost."
"But his name was not Durand; and I distinctly recollect that his address was Paris, not Chartres.And, besides," said the soldier, thoughtfully, "if he has some important documents, why didn't he transmit them to me?"
"It seems to me that you ought not to neglect going to him as soon as possible," said Agricola, secretly rejoiced that this circumstance would withdraw his father for about two days, during which time his (Agricola's) fate would be decided in one way or other.
"Your counsel is good," replied his father.
"This thwarts your intentions in some degree?" asked Gabriel.
"Rather, my lads; for I counted upon passing the day with you.However, `duty before everything.' Having come happily from Siberia to Paris, it is not for me to fear a journey from Paris to Chartres, when it is required on an affair of importance.In twice twenty-four hours I shall be back again.But the deuce take me if I expected to leave Paris for Chartres to-day.Luckily, I leave Rose and Blanche with my good wife;
and Gabriel, their angel, as they call him, will be here to keep them company."
"That is, unfortunately, impossible," said the missionary, sadly."This visit on my arrival is also a farewell visit."
"A farewell visit! Now!" exclaimed Dagobert and Agricola both at once.
"Alas, yes!"
"You start already on another mission?" said Dagobert; "surely it is not possible?"
"I must answer no question upon this subject," said Gabriel, suppressing a sigh: "but from now, for some time, I cannot, and ought not, come again into this house."