"No, but I deem it only right to set a price on my gratitude."
"Good Heavens! Mademoiselle, you know very well that if you should become as poor as I am I should be just as devoted to you."
"I do not doubt that in the least, but until I become poor, do what I ask. Take me to Madame Herbaut's to-morrow evening."
"But if you will talk the matter over a little you will see how impossible your plan is."
"And why?"
"In the first place, how can you arrange to have the disposal of your evening? The baron and baroness and Mlle. Helena never leave you."
"Oh, I can manage that very easily. To-morrow morning I will say that I passed a very uncomfortable night, and that I am not feeling at all well. I will remain in my room all day, and to-morrow evening you will go to the family and tell them that I am asleep and don't wish to be disturbed by anybody. My guardian and his family respect my slightest wish so abjectly that they will not dare to disturb my slumbers," added Mlle. de Beaumesnil, with mingled sadness and disdain.
"Oh, mademoiselle is perfectly right about that. No one would dare to contradict or oppose mademoiselle in anything. If mademoiselle should tell M. le baron to stand on his head, he would do it without a word."
"Oh, yes, they are certainly the most considerate of relatives, so full of tenderness and dignity," replied Ernestine, with a rather peculiar expression. "Ah, well, you see, then, that it will be an easy matter for me to secure an evening to myself."
"Yes, mademoiselle, but how shall we manage to get out of the house?"
"Get out of the house?"
"Yes. I mean without meeting any one on the stairway, or being seen by the concierge."
"That is your lookout. I depend upon you to devise a means of doing that."
"Oh, it is very easy to say devise a means, mademoiselle, but--"
"I foresaw this difficulty, of course, but I said to myself, 'My dear Laine is very clever. She will assist me in this.'"
"Heaven knows I would be only too glad to, mademoiselle, but I really do not see--"
"Put on your thinking-cap. I have never used any but the main stairway, but are there no servants' stairways leading from my apartments?"
"Of course, mademoiselle. There are two such staircases, but you would run a great risk of meeting the servants if you used either of them; that is," added the governess, thoughtfully,--"that is unless you should choose the time that they are at dinner, about eight o'clock, for example."
"Your idea is an admirable one."
"Mademoiselle should not rejoice too soon."
"Why?"
"Mademoiselle will still have to pass the porter's lodge, and he is a regular Cerberus, for ever on the watch."
"That is true, we shall have to think of some other way."
"I am trying, mademoiselle, but it's no easy matter, I assure you."
"But not impossible, it seems to me."
"Ah, I have an idea, mademoiselle!" exclaimed the governess, suddenly, after reflecting a moment.
"Let me hear it."
"Excuse me, mademoiselle, but I'm not sure that it is at all feasible yet. Let me go and see. I'll be back in a moment."
And the governess darted out of the room. The orphan was left alone.
"I was right," she murmured, with an expression of bitter disgust. "This woman has a base and mercenary nature, like so many others, but these very failings will ensure me her submission, and, above all, her discretion."
In a few minutes the governess returned, radiant.
"Victory, mademoiselle!" she exclaimed, rapturously.
"Explain, if you please."
"Mademoiselle is aware that her dressing-room opens into my bedroom."
"Yes."
"And adjoining my chamber there is a large room containing the wardrobes for mademoiselle's dresses."
"Well?"
"There is a door in this room which opens upon a narrow staircase to which I never paid any attention before."
"And where does this staircase lead?"
"It leads down to a small door which has been closed up, but which opens, as nearly as I can judge, upon the side street."
"This door opens upon the street?" cried Mlle. de Beaumesnil, quickly.
"Yes, mademoiselle, and this is not at all surprising. In many of the large houses in this neighbourhood there are small private stairways leading up to the sleeping apartments, because in former times the ladies of the court--"
"The ladies of the court?" inquired Ernestine, so navely that Madame Laine's eyes fell before the girl's innocent gaze.
So, fearing that she was going too far, and that she might imperil her recently acquired intimacy with her pupil, Madame Laine said:
"I don't care to fill mademoiselle's ears with a lot of servants'
gossip."
"And you are right. But if this door which leads into the street is condemned, how shall we open it?"
"It is bolted and nailed up on the inside--but mademoiselle needn't worry. I have all night before me, and to-morrow morning I hope to have a good report to make to mademoiselle."
"Very well If you think it necessary, inform your friend, Madame Herbaut, in advance that you will bring a relative with you to-morrow evening."
"I will do so, though it isn't at all necessary. Mademoiselle, if she accompanies me, will be as cordially received as I am. There is very little ceremony among people of that class."