Still, wishing to struggle with the terror which was gaining invincibly upon her, Adrienne called to her aid all the firmness of her character, and tried to argue away her fears.
"I must have been deceived." she said; "it was only a fall that I heard.
The moaning had no existence, except in my imagination.There are a thousand reasons for believing that it was not a person who fell down.
But, then, these locked doors? They, perhaps, do not know that I am here; they may have thought that there was nobody in this room."
As she uttered these words, Adrienne looked round with anxiety; then she added, in a firm voice: "No weakness! it is useless to try to blind myself to my real situation.On the contrary, I must look it well in the face.It is evident that I am not here at a minister's house; no end of reasons prove it beyond a doubt; M.Baleinier has therefore deceived me.
But for what end? Why has he brought me hither? Where am I?"
The last two questions appeared to Adrienne both equally insoluble.It only remained clear, that she was the victim of M.Baleinier's perfidy.
But this certainly seemed so horrible to the young girl's truthful and generous soul, that she still tried to combat the idea by the recollection of the confiding friendship which she had always shown this man.She said to herself with bitterness: "See how weakness and fear may lead one to unjust and odious suspicions! Yes; for until the last extremity, it is not justifiable to believe in so infernal a deception--
and then only upon the clearest evidence.I will call some one: it is the only way of completely satisfying these doubts." Then, remembering that there was no bell, she added: "No matter; I will knock, and some one will doubtless answer." With her little, delicate hand, Adrienne struck the door several times.
The dull, heavy sound which came from the door showed that it was very thick.No answer was returned to the young girl.She ran to the other door.There was the same appeal on her part, the same profound silence without--only interrupted from time to time by the howling of the wind.
"I am not more timid than other people," said Adrienne, shuddering; "I do not know if it is the excessive cold, but I tremble in spite of myself.
I endeavor to guard against all weakness; yet I think that any one in my position would find all this very strange and frightful."
At this instant, loud cries, or rather savage and dreadful howls, burst furiously from the room just above, and soon after a sort of stamping of feet, like the noise of a violent struggle, shook the ceiling of the apartment.Struck with consternation, Adrienne uttered a loud cry of terror became deadly pale, stood for a moment motionless with affright, and then rushed to one of the windows, and abruptly threw it open.
A violent gust of wind, mixed with melted snow, beat against Adrienne's face, swept roughly into the room, and soon extinguished the flickering and smoky light of the lamp.Thus, plunged in profound darkness, with her hands clinging to the bars that were placed across the window, Mdlle.
de Cardoville yielded at length to the full influence of her fears, so long restrained, and was about to call aloud for help, when an unexpected apparition rendered her for some minutes absolutely mute with terror.
Another wing of the building, opposite to that in which she was, stood at no great distance.Through the midst of the black darkness, which filled the space between, one large, lighted window was distinctly visible.
Through the curtainless panes, Adrienne perceived a white figure, gaunt and ghastly, dragging after it a sort of shroud, and passing and repassing continually before the window, with an abrupt and restless motion.Her eyes fixed upon this window, shining through the darkness, Adrienne remained as if fascinated by that fatal vision: and, as the spectacle filled up the measure of her fears, she called for help with all her might, without quitting the bars of the window to which she clung.After a few seconds, whilst she was thus crying out, two tall women entered the room in silence, unperceived by Mdlle.de Cardoville, who was still clinging to the window.
These women, of about forty to fifty years of age, robust and masculine, were negligently and shabbily dressed, like chambermaids of the lower sort; over their clothes they wore large aprons of blue cotton, cut sloping from their necks, and reaching down to their feet.One of them, who held a lamp in her hand, had a broad, red, shining face, a large pimpled nose, small green eyes, and tow hair, which straggled rough and shaggy from beneath her dirty white cap.The other, sallow, withered, and bony, wore a mourning-cap over a parchment visage, pitted with the small-pox, and rendered still more repulsive by the thick black eyebrows, and some long gray hairs that overshadowed the upper lip.This woman carried, half unfolded in her hand, a garment of strange form, made of thick gray stuff.
They both entered silently by the little door, at the moment when Adrienne, in the excess of her terror, was grasping the bars of the window, and crying out: "Help! help!"
Pointing out the young lady to each other, one of them went to place the lamp on the chimney-piece, whilst the other (she who wore the mourning-
cap) approached the window, and laid her great bony hand upon Mdlle.de Cardoville's shoulder.
Turning round, Adrienne uttered a new cry of terror at the sight of this grim figure.Then, the first moment of stupor over, she began to feel less afraid; hideous as was this woman, it was at least some one to speak to; she exclaimed, therefore, in an agitated voice: "Where is M.
Baleinier?"
The two women looked at each other, exchanged a leer of mutual intelligence, but did not answer.
"I ask you, madame,"resumed Adrienne, "where is M.Baleinier, who brought me hither? I wish to see him instantly."
"He is gone," said the big woman.