The feeling, indeed, that some disagreeable event had occurred was vague; but I had always found it the best plan to make instant inquiries into the situation of affairs around me, as soon as ever I had the slightest suspicion that anything had gone amiss. Without even proceeding to my own apartments, therefore, I directed my steps, at once, to the room of my domestic oracle, the major-domo, and entered unannounced. The old man was busy with papers and accounts; but the moment he saw me he threw them down upon the table, and, lifting up his hands with an air of affliction, he exclaimed, "It has all gone wrong again, sir; it has all gone wrong."
"Why, what, in Heaven's name, is the matter now, Jerome?" I demanded. "When I left you, all bade fair to continue tranquil and at peace."
"Ay! but there is some demon of mischief at work in the house," replied the old man, "whose machinations we don't understand. My lord is a thousand times worse than ever. Indeed, he hardly appears to me to be sane."
This news, as it may well be supposed, grieved me deeply; but, of course, my first thought was to discover the origin of the change that had taken place, in order, if possible, to counteract any evil that might have been produced either by accident or by design. "Tell me, good Jerome," I said, as the old man was going on with desultory lamentations and vague facts, "tell me exactly what has occurred since I went away, step by step, as nearly as you can remember it."
"Why, my son," he replied, "I have very little to tell, except what I have before said, that my lord seems nearly insane. However, let me see! The only thing that occurred worth noticing the day after you went away was, that in returning from Juvigny, where I had been visiting my nephew, late in the evening, I found Master Gaspard and Madame Suzette, my lady's maid, in one of the alleys of the park a great deal more intimate than I liked. I had seen something of the same kind before at the Prés Vallée, and then, though I did not choose to show myself in the matter, I took good care that my lady should know what was going on; and I know that she scolded Suzette severely, and threatened to discharge her if she behaved so lightly. However, there they were again, walking along together, certainly more like two lovers than a page of good birth and a lady's tiring-woman ought to be. Coming upon them suddenly, I passed by without their well seeing who I was; but I heard him say to her, speaking of some one else, 'Oh! he would take fire at it in a minute; anything of that kind would do very well.' This time I thought it my bounden duty to tell my lady myself what I had seen, and she was very angry indeed. The morning after that, as I was just going up the great staircase, I heard a terrible noise in my mistress's dressing-room, and the next moment my master passed me like a madman; while I saw Lise, the other maid, running out of my mistress's room as if for help. The moment she set eyes upon me, she called me to come up and help her; and I found my mistress lying upon the floor of her dressing-room, as if she were dead; while beside her there was a large roll of bright blue riband, which seemed to have fallen out of her hand. While we were lifting her up to put her on the couch, my lord rushed in again, and, giving a glance at her as if she had been a viper, snatched up the riband, and left us to bring her to herself as we best could. She did not recover for some time; and I thought it but right to call the doctor, who kept her to her bed all that day. In the meanwhile, I asked Lise to explain the cause of all this discomfort; and she told me that she knew but little, not having heard all that passed between my lady and my lord. When first she went into her mistress's dressing-room, she said, she found Suzette persuading her mistress to have her white mantle trimmed with that blue riband; and, though her mistress said it would look ugly, still she held it in her hand. In a minute or two afterwards, Suzette went away, and the Duchess asked Lise whether she thought the riband would look well on the mantle. Just while they were speaking, in came my lord, and Lise went on into the bed-room beyond; but, in a moment after, she heard a word or two about the riband, and my lord gave my lady some hard names which she would not repeat. Hearing some one fall, she ran in, she said, to see, and found the Duchess as I have told you she was when I came there. Ever since that time, my lord has been like one distracted; and though he saw his wife yesterday, he spoke not a word to her, but all the time he was in the room, he continued playing with the curls of Mademoiselle's hair, and thinking of something else."