第34章 THE HOUSE IN THE RUELLE D'ARCY.(1)

I had not gone down half a dozen steps before I heard a man enter the staircase from the street,and begin to ascend.It struck me at once that this might be M.de Bruhl;and I realised that I had not left madame's apartment a moment too soon.The last thing Idesired,having so much on my hands,was to embroil myself with a stranger,and accordingly I quickened my pace,hoping to meet him so near the foot of the stairs as to leave him in doubt whether Ihad been visiting the upper or lower part of the house.The staircase was dark,however,and being familiar with it,he had the advantage over me.He came leaping up two steps at a time,and turning the angle abruptly,surprised me before I was clear of the upper flight.

On seeing me,he stopped short and stared;thinking at first,Ifancy,that he ought to recognise me.When he did not,he stood back a pace.'Umph!'he said.'Have you been--have you any message for me,sir?'

'No,'I said,'I have not.'

He frowned.'I am M.de Bruhl,'he said.

'Indeed?'I muttered,not knowing what else to say.

'You have been--'

'Up your stairs,sir?Yes.In error,'I answered bluntly.

He gave a kind of grunt at that,and stood aside,incredulous and dissatisfied,yet uncertain how to proceed.I met his black looks with a steady countenance,and passed by him,becoming aware,however,as I went on down the stairs that he had turned and was looking after me.He was a tall,handsome man,dark,and somewhat ruddy of complexion,and was dressed in the extreme of Court fashion,in a suit of myrtle-green trimmed with sable.He carried also a cloak lined with the same on his arm.Beyond looking back when I reached the street,to see that he did not follow me,I thought no more of him.But we were to meet again,and often.Nay,had I then known all that was to be known Iwould have gone back and--But of that in another place.

The Rue de Valois,to which a tradesman,who was peering cautiously out of his shop,directed me,proved to be one of the main streets of the city,narrow and dirty,and darkened by overhanging eaves and signboards,but full of noise and bustle.

One end of it opened on the PARVIS of the Cathedral;the other and quieter end appeared to abut on the west gate of the town.

Feeling the importance of avoiding notice in the neighbourhood of the house I sought,I strolled into the open space in front of the Cathedral,and accosting two men who stood talking there,learned that the Ruelle d'Arcy was the third lane on the right of the Rue de Valois,and some little distance along it.Armed with this information I left them,and with my head bent down,and my cloak drawn about the lower part of my face,as if I felt the east wind,I proceeded down the street until I reached the opening of the lane.Without looking up I turned briskly into it.

When I had gone ten paces past the turning,however,I stopped and,gazing about me,began to take in my surroundings as fast as I could.The lane,which seemed little frequented,was eight or nine feet wide,unpaved,and full of ruts.The high blank wall of a garden rose on one side of it,on the other the still higher wall of a house;and both were completely devoid of windows,a feature which I recognised with the utmost dismay.For it completely upset all my calculations.In vain I measured with my eye the ten paces I had come;in vain I looked up,looked this way and that.I was nonplussed.No window opened on the lane at that point,nor,indeed,throughout its length.For it was bounded to the end,as far as I could see,by dead-walls as of gardens.

Recognising,with a sinking heart,what this meant,I saw in a moment that all the hopes I had raised on Simon Fleix's discovery were baseless.Mademoiselle had dropped the velvet bow,no doubt,but not from a window.It was still a clue,but one so slight and vague as to be virtually useless,proving only that she was in trouble and in need of help;perhaps that she had passed through this lane on her way from one place of confinement to another.

Thoroughly baffled and dispirited,I leant for awhile against the wall,brooding over the ill-luck which seemed to attend me in this,as in so many previous adventures.Nor was the low voice of conscience,suggesting that such failures arose from mismanagement rather than from ill-luck,slow to make itself heard.I reflected that if I had not allowed myself to be robbed of the gold token,mademoiselle would have trusted me;that if Ihad not brought her to so poor an abode as my mother's,she would not have been cajoled into following a stranger;finally,that if I had remained with her,and sent Simon to attend to the horses in my place,no stranger would have gained access to her.

But it has never been my way to accept defeat at the first offer,and though I felt these self-reproaches to be well deserved,a moment's reflection persuaded me that in the singular and especial providence which had brought the velvet knot safe to my hands I ought to find encouragement.Had Madame de Bruhl not picked it up it would have continued to lie in this by-path,through which neither I nor Simon Fleix would have been likely to pass.Again,had madame not dropped it in her turn,we should have sought in vain for any,even the slightest,clue to Mademoiselle de la Vire's fate or position.

Cheered afresh by this thought,I determined to walk to the end of the lane;and forthwith did so,looking sharply about me as Iwent,but meeting no one.The bare upper branches of a tree rose here and there above the walls,which were pierced at intervals by low,strong doors.These doors I carefully examined,but without making any discovery;all were securely fastened,and many seemed to have been rarely opened.Emerging at last and without result on the inner side of the city ramparts,I turned,and moodily retraced my steps through the lane,proceeding more slowly as I drew near to the Rue de Valois.This time,being a little farther from the street,I made a discovery.