Antoine.
Coupri started and gasped upon beholding me, and not until I had cursed him
for a fool in a voice that was passing human would he believe that I was no
ghost. He too had heard the rumour of my death.
I dispatched Michelot to the Palais Royal, where--without permitting his
motive to transpire--he was to ascertain for me whether M. de Montr?sor was
in Paris, whether he still dwelt at the H?tel des Cloches, and at what hour
he could be found there.
Whilst he was away I went up to my room, and there I found a letter which
Coupri informed me had been left by a lackey a month ago--before the report
that I had been killed had reached Paris--and since lain forgotten. It was
a delicate note, to which still hung the ghost of a perfume; there were no
arms on the seal, but the writing I took to be that of my aunt, the
Duchesse de Chevreuse, and vaguely marvelling what motive she could have
had for communicating with me, I cut the silk.
It was, indeed, from the Duchesse, but it contained no more than a request
that I should visit her at her h?tel on the day following upon that on
which she had written, adding that she had pleasing news for me.
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