Part 15 (1/2)
”Perhaps he has fallen in love with somebody else?” asked Renine. ”Or there may be some old connection which he is unable to shake off.”
Genevieve shook her head:
”Monsieur, believe me, if our engagement had been broken off for an ordinary reason, I should not have allowed Hortense to trouble you. But it is something quite different, I am absolutely convinced. There's a mystery in Jean Louis' life, or rather an endless number of mysteries which hamper and pursue him. I never saw such distress in a human face; and, from the first moment of our meeting, I was conscious in him of a grief and melancholy which have always persisted, even at times when he was giving himself to our love with the greatest confidence.”
”But your impression must have been confirmed by minor details, by things which happened to strike you as peculiar?”
”I don't quite know what to say.”
”These two names, for instance?”
”Yes, there was certainly that.”
”By what name did he introduce himself to you?”
”Jean Louis d'Imbleval.”
”But Jean Louis Vaurois?”
”That's what my father calls him.”
”Why?”
”Because that was how he was introduced to my father, at Nice, by a gentleman who knew him. Besides, he carries visiting-cards which describe him under either name.”
”Have you never questioned him on this point?”
”Yes, I have, twice. The first time, he said that his aunt's name was Vaurois and his mother's d'Imbleval.”
”And the second time?”
”He told me the contrary: he spoke of his mother as Vaurois and of his aunt as d'Imbleval. I pointed this out. He coloured up and I thought it better not to question him any further.”
”Does he live far from Paris?”
”Right down in Brittany: at the Manoir d'Elseven, five miles from Carhaix.”
Renine rose and asked the girl, seriously:
”Are you quite certain that he loves you, mademoiselle?”
”I am certain of it and I know too that he represents all my life and all my happiness. He alone can save me. If he can't, then I shall be married in a week's time to a man whom I hate. I have promised my father; and the banns have been published.”
”We shall leave for Carhaix, Madame Daniel and I, this evening,” said Renine.
That evening he and Hortense took the train for Brittany. They reached Carhaix at ten o'clock in the morning; and, after lunch, at half past twelve o'clock they stepped into a car borrowed from a leading resident of the district.
”You're looking a little pale, my dear,” said Renine, with a laugh, as they alighted by the gate of the garden at Elseven.
”I'm very fond of Genevieve,” she said. ”She's the only friend I have. And I'm feeling frightened.”