"Hélas!" said Lobélie. "Chance, sans doute."
"If chance you call it," retorted Villefaramir.
"But is it not chance, however fateful? Is it not by chance that the Count of Monte Fato bought that house? Is it not by chance that he had the earth excavated, probably in order to examine plate tectonics? Is it not by chance that that unhappy child was unearthed? Poor innocent creature born of me, whom I have never been able to kiss, but for whom I have shed many a tear, as Mandaux foresaw and warned me in an epigram, that alas I heeded not! Ah, how my heart has flown when the Count spoke of those dear remains found under the flowers!"
"No, madame, voilà what I had of terrible to say to you," returned Villefaramir in a hollow voice. "No, there are no remains found under the flowers; no, there is no unearthed child; no, we must not weep; we must tremble! Or flee; and let not the swift wait for the slow!"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean," said Villefaramir, "that M. de Monte Fato cannot have found the skeleton of a child, nor hinge of coffer, for under that X was neither the one nor the other."
"But is it not there that you laid the child, monsieur?" said the baroness. "Why deceive me?"
