"Come and undress me;
I must be up early to-morrow morning."
This remark was not lost upon Chupin, and at seven o'clock the
next morning he mounted guard at M. de Coralth's door. All
through the day he followed the viscount about, first to the
Marquis de Valorsay's, then to the office of a business agent,
then to M. Wilkie's, then, in the afternoon, to Baroness
Trigault's, and finally, in the evening, to the house of Madame
d'Argeles. Here, by making himself useful to the servants, by his
zeal in opening and shutting the doors of the carriages that left
the house, he succeeded in gathering some information concerning
the frightful scene which had taken place between the mother and
the son. He perceived M. Wilkie leave the house with his clothes
in disorder, and subsequently he saw the viscount emerge. He
followed him, first to the house of the Marquis de Valorsay, and
afterward to M. Wilkie's rooms, where he remained till nearly
daybreak.
Thus, when Chupin presented himself in M. Fortunat's office at two
o'clock on the Tuesday afternoon, he felt that he held every
possible clue to the shameful intrigue which would ruin the
viscount as soon as it was made public.
M. Fortunat knew that his agent was shrewd, but he had not done
justice to his abilities; and it was, indeed, with something very
like envy that he listened to Chupin's clear and circumstantial
report.
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