Such an explanation was more than sufficient, and the pain of it once over, all further difficulty or reserve between us was at an end. He spoke some time longer with me in the library; and though he alluded but vaguely and remotely to the past, yet he did speak of it more than once with that sort of lingering tendency which a man always has to return, in conversation with others, to any subject that occupies all his thoughts when alone. At length, taking a key from the table, he said, "I have a fearful task before me, but one which I promised to execute myself. Nevertheless, I confess my heart so plays the coward with me that I am afraid to enter those rooms alone. You must go with me, at least as far as the ante-room, and wait for me there till my task is concluded." Although he did not mention what rooms he meant, yet as I had heard from the old major-domo that Father Ferdinand had, with his own hands, closed and sealed the apartments of Madame de Villardin immediately after his arrival at the château, I easily divined that it was to those chambers that the Duke now alluded. I instantly prepared to follow, but still ventured to ask whether he had not better desire the good Priest to accompany him in the sad duty he was about to perform. He shook his head gloomily, and replied, "No, no, I must go alone;" and then, with a pale cheek and wavering steps, took his way up the great staircase. His hand shook so fearfully that he could scarcely remove the seal, and turn the key in the lock of Madame de Villardin's chamber door; and sitting down in the ante-room he paused for several minutes, in order to gain strength for the undertaking. At length he started up abruptly, exclaiming, "Now!" and entering her bed-room, which communicated with a dressing-room on the other side, he closed the door behind him. Full of sad thoughts, I stood gazing out of the lattice for some time; but at the end of about a quarter of an hour, I heard the ante-room door open, and turning my head round without any noise, perceived Madame Suzette stealing quietly in, and looking about her. As soon as she perceived me she halted; and, with as much abhorrence as ever I felt towards any loathsome reptile in my life, I walked forward, and taking her by the arm, turned her quietly but firmly towards the door. Thinking, probably, that I was there alone, she seemed about to take some noisy notice of my unceremonious ejection of her pretty person; but, pointing sternly towards the bed-chamber, I whispered, "The Duke is there;" and, glad to get off unobserved, she tripped away as quietly and speedily as possible. I kept my silent and now undisturbed watch in the ante-room for nearly two hours, and all seemed so still and quiet within the chamber beyond, that I began at length to feel alarmed lest the excitement and agitation which Monsieur de Villardin had evidently experienced when he entered, should have overpowered him in the course of his undertaking.