When they reached
the hotel they were relieved to find that nothing particular had
happened during their absence. Isabelle, quietly seated at table with
the others when they entered, received the baron with her usual sweet
smile, and held out her little white hand to him. The comedians asked
many questions about his first experiences in Paris, and inquired
mischievously whether he had brought his cloak, his purse, and his
handkerchief home with him, to which de Sigognac joyfully answered
in the affirmative. In this friendly banter he soon forgot his sombre
thoughts, and asked himself whether he had not been the dupe of a
hypochondriac fancy, which could see nothing anywhere but plots and
conspiracies.
He had not been alarmed without reason however, for his enemies, vexed
but not discouraged by the failure of their several attempts upon him,
had by no means renounced their determination to make away with him.
Merindol, who was threatened by the duke with being sent back to the
galleys whence he had rescued him, unless he and his comrades succeeded
in disposing of the Baron de Sigognac, resolved to invoke the assistance
of a certain clever rascal of his acquaintance, who had never been known
to fail in any job of that kind which he undertook.
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