opposite corner to the garden wall of the Marion estate on the other
side of the road leading to Brienne. Therefore the solution of the
problem could be rapid. Antonin Goulard returned to his place by
Cecile to await results.

"We talked so much about the stranger yesterday that I dreamed of him
all night," said Madame Mollot.

"Ha! ha! do you still dream of unknown heroes, fair lady?" said Vinet.

"You are very impertinent; if I chose I could make you dream of me,"
she retorted. "So this morning when I rose--"

It may not be useless to say that Madame Mollot was considered a
clever woman in Arcis; that is, she expressed herself fluently and
abused that advantage. A Parisian, wandering by chance into these
regions, like the Unknown, would have thought her excessively
garrulous.

"--I was, naturally, making my toilet, and as I looked mechanically
about me--"

"Through the window?" asked Antonin.

"Certainly; my dressing-room opens on the street. Now you know, of
course, that Poupart has put the stranger into one of the rooms
exactly opposite to mine--"

"One room, mamma!" interrupted Ernestine. "The count occupies three
rooms! The little groom, dressed all in black, is in the first. They