In Hanaud's wake they all went out into the hall.

The nurse came down alone carrying Helene Vauquier's bag.

She placed it in the cab and waited in the doorway.
"Perhaps Helene Vauquier has fainted," she said anxiously: "she does not come." And she moved towards the stairs.
Hanaud took a singularly swift step forward and stopped her.
"Why should you think that ?" he asked, with a queer smile upon his face, and as he spoke a door closed gently upstairs.

"See," he continued, "you are wrong: she is coming." Ricardo was puzzled.

It had seemed to him that the door which had closed so gently was nearer than Helene Vauquier's door.