“Nonsense, child. They only come at night. The question is—where are those two going?” Juliette shook her head and gave it up, and so perforce did her mother. CHAPTER IX THE PASTEUR CONQUERS Meanwhile, following a short cut through the snowy woods that ran over the shoulder of the intervening hill, the pair were wending their way towards Lucerne. Godfrey, a fixed and vacant look upon his face, went first; the Pasteur clinging to his arm like a limpet to a rock, puffed along beside him. “Heaven!” he gasped, “but this attraction of yours must be strong that it makes you walk so fast immediately after dinner.” “It is, it is!” said Godfrey, in a kind of agony. “I feel as though my inside were being drawn out, and I must follow it. Please hold my arm tight or I shall run.” “Ah! the witch. The great witch!” puffed the Pasteur, “and up this hill too, over snow. Well, it will be better on the down grade. Give me your hand, my boy, for your coat is slipping, and if once you got away how should I catch you?” They accomplished the walk into Lucerne in absolutely record time. Fortunately, at this after-dinner hour few people were about, but some of those whom they met stared at them, and one called: “Do you take him to the police-station? Shall I summon the _gens-d’arme_?” “No, no,” replied the Pasteur, “he goes to keep an assignation, and is in a hurry.” “Then why does he take you with him? Surely a clergyman will make a bad third at such an affair?” ejaculated an outspoken lady who was standing at her house door. “Where is the street? I do not know it,” asked the Pasteur. “Nor do I,” answered Godfrey, “but we shall come there all right. To the left now.” “Oh! the influence! The strong influence!” muttered Monsieur Boiset. “Behold! it leads him.” Truly it did lead him. Round corners and across squares they went into an old part of the town with which neither of them was acquainted, till at length Godfrey, diving beneath an archway, pulled up in front of an antique doorway, saying: “I think this is the place.” “Look at the writing and make sure,” said the Pasteur, “for it seems ridiculous——” At that moment the door opened mysteriously, and Godfrey disappeared into the passage beyond. Scarcely had the Pasteur time to follow him when it shut again, although he could see no _concierge_.