"Where are you going, madame?" asked Marcel, who had not seen Julie fleeing, but who distrusted the gleaming eyes and the jerky gait of the vigorous and active old woman. The marchioness did not deign to answer, but hopped on like a plucked magpie. Marcel and the notary followed her, being unable to stop her. She knew the place very well, although she had not shown herself there for a long while, having had a falling-out with her step-son the count at the time of her second marriage. She arrived at the pavilion a few minutes after Julie, and entered the studio like a bombshell. Julien was alone; he was not even aware that Madame d'Estrelle had come in and gone up to his mother's room. Since he had been seeing Julie in secret, he had ceased to be on the lookout for her. They were so entirely agreed that they would not meet by chance! He was working and singing over his work. Julie, as she passed through the little porch, had had an indefinable sudden presentiment of the danger of being followed; so she had gone upstairs, convinced that the widow's bedroom was an inviolable refuge. Surprised by the sudden appearance of the old dowager, Julien, who had never seen her, rose from his chair, thinking that she had come from the street and that she wished to give him an order. That red-faced, panting apparition, angular and repellent, caused him more displeasure than hope. "Here is a person who will haggle like a pawnbroker," he thought rapidly, "unless indeed she is a female pawnbroker herself." The lady's shabby costume in nowise indicated her rank and her wealth. "Are you alone here?" she asked, without any sort of salutation. Marcel and the notary appeared, and Julien's wondering eyes questioned the former, who made haste to reply: "Madame desires to purchase this pavilion, and----" "I don't need to be introduced to this gentleman," retorted the marchioness, sharply, "and I am quite able to explain myself." "In that case, madame," laughed Julien, "this _gentleman_ awaits your orders." "I asked you a question," continued the marchioness in nowise disconcerted; "I will make it more distinct. Where did the Comtesse d'Estrelle go?" Julien started back; Marcel, seeking to avoid an absurd scene, hastily motioned to him and touched his forehead with his finger, to indicate that the woman's mind was deranged. "Ah! very good," said Julien, speaking in the tone which one adopts with children and madmen. "Madame la Comtesse d'Estrelle? I don't know her." "A silly answer, master painter, and altogether useless. I desire to speak to that lady, and I know that she lives here--from time to time!" "Marcel," said Julien, turning to his cousin, "was it you who brought _this lady_ to me?" Marcel, in dire distress, shook his head. "Then it was you, monsieur?" Julien asked the notary. "No, monsieur," the notary replied with decision; "I followed madame, and I have absolutely no idea why she came here."