"To whom, monsieur?" asked the old fellow blankly.

"To me."

"But I told him I had not," said Amedee placidly. "It is the same
thing."

"I wonder," I began, struck by a sudden thought, "if it will prove quite
the same thing in my own case. I suppose you have not mentioned the
circumstance of my being here to your friend, Jean Ferret of Quesnay?"

He looked at me reproachfully. "Has monsieur been troubled by the people
of the chateau?"

"'Troubled' by them?"

"Have they come to seek out monsieur and disturb him? Have they done
anything whatever to show that they have heard monsieur is here?"

"No, certainly they haven't," I was obliged to retract at once. "I beg
your pardon, Amedee."

"Ah, monsieur!" He made a deprecatory bow (which plunged me still deeper
in shame), struck a match, and offered a light for my cigar with a
forgiving hand. "All the same," he pursued, "it seems very mysterious--
this Keredec affair!"

"To comprehend a great man, Amedee," I said, "is the next thing to
sharing his greatness."