And, as Monsieur went up-stairs to dress, Madame turned her fury upon us.
"And you?
What are you doing, standing there like so many bundles, and looking at me?
It is all the same to you, I suppose, whether your masters are plundered or not?
And you too heard nothing?
What luck! It is charming to have such servants. You think of nothing but eating and drinking, pack of brutes that you are!"
Then, addressing Joseph directly, she asked:
"Why didn't the dogs bark?
Say, why not?"
This question seemed to embarrass Joseph for a fraction of a second, but he quickly recovered himself.
"I don't know, Madame," said he, in a most natural tone.
"It is true that the dogs didn't bark.
That is curious, indeed!"
"Did you let them loose last night?"
"Certainly I let them loose, as I do every night. That is curious!
Yes, indeed! that is curious!
It must be that the robbers knew the house ... and the dogs."
"Well, Joseph, how is it that you, so devoted and punctual as a rule, did not hear anything?" "It is true that I heard nothing.
That is another singular thing. For I do not sleep soundly. If a cat crosses the garden, I hear it. It is not natural, all the same.
And those confounded dogs especially! Indeed, indeed!"
Madame interrupted Joseph:
"Stop! Leave me in peace. You are brutes, all of you!
And Marianne.
Where is Marianne?
Why isn't she here?
She is sleeping like a chump, undoubtedly."
And, going out of the servants' hall, she called up the stairs:
"Marianne!
Marianne!"
I looked at Joseph, who looked at the boxes.
Joseph's face wore a grave expression.
There was a sort of mystery in his eyes. _____
I will not try to describe this day, with all its varied incidents and follies.
The prosecuting attorney, summoned by dispatch, came in the afternoon, and began his investigation.
Joseph, Marianne, and I were questioned, one after the other,—the first two for the sake of form, I with a hostile persistence which was extremely disagreeable to me.
They visited my room, and searched my commode and my trunks.
My correspondence was examined in detail.
Thanks to a piece of good luck that I bless, the manuscript of my diary escaped them.
A few days before the event I had sent it to Clecle, from whom I had received an affectionate letter.
But for that the magistrates perhaps would have found in these pages a foundation for a charge against Joseph, or at least for suspicion of him.
I still tremble at the thought of it.
It goes without saying that they also examined the garden paths, the platbands, the walls, the openings in the hedges, and the little yard leading to the lane, in the hope of finding foot-prints and traces of wall-scaling. But the ground was very dry and hard; it was impossible to discover the slightest imprint, the slightest clue.
The fence, the walls, the openings in the hedges, kept their secret jealously.
Just as in the case of the outrage in the woods, the people of the neighborhood hurried forward, asking to testify.
One had seen a man of light complexion "whose looks he did not like;" another had seen a man of dark complexion "who had a funny air."
In short, the investigation proved fruitless. No scent, no suspicion.
"We shall have to wait," declared the prosecuting attorney, mysteriously, as he left that night.
"Perhaps the Paris police will put us on the track of the guilty."
During this fatiguing day, amid the goings and comings, I had scarcely the leisure to think of the consequences of this drama, which for the first time put a little animation and life into this dismal Priory.
Madame did not give us a minute's rest; we had to run hither and thither,—without reason, moreover, for Madame had lost her head a little. As for Marianne, she seemed to take no notice of anything, and to be unaware that anything had happened to upset the house. Like the sad Eugenie, she followed her own idea, and her own idea was very far from our preoccupations.