"Are
you ready?" he asked, addressing Vendale. "Can I take anything for you?
You have no travelling-bag. I have got one. Here is the compartment for
papers, open at your service."
"Thank you," said Vendale. "I have only one paper of importance with me;
and that paper I am bound to take charge of myself. Here it is," he
added, touching the breast-pocket of his coat, "and here it must remain
till we get to Neuchatel."
As he said those words, Marguerite's hand caught his, and pressed it
significantly. She was looking towards Obenreizer. Before Vendale could
look, in his turn, Obenreizer had wheeled round, and was taking leave of
Madame Dor.
"Adieu, my charming niece!" he said, turning to Marguerite next. "En
route, my friend, for Neuchatel!" He tapped Vendale lightly over the
breast-pocket of his coat and led the way to the door.
Vendale's last look was for Marguerite. Marguerite's last words to him
were, "Don't go!"
ACT III.
IN THE VALLEY
It was about the middle of the month of February when Vendale and
Obenreizer set forth on their expedition. The winter being a hard one,
the time was bad for travellers. So bad was it that these two
travellers, coming to Strasbourg, found its great inns almost empty. And
even the few people they did encounter in that city, who had started from
England or from Paris on business journeys towards the interior of
Switzerland, were turning back.
Many of the railroads in Switzerland that tourists pass easily enough
now, were almost or quite impracticable then.
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