For why, if Marie were going to the duke's, should she not have aroused her mother and gone with her?
That the duke had sent his carriage for her was likely enough; that he would cause it to wait outside the town was not impossible; that Marie had told her mother that she had gone to the duke's was also clear from that lady's triumphant demeanor.

But that she had in reality gone, I could not believe.

A sudden thought struck me.
"Did Mlle.

Delhasse," I asked, "send any answer to the note that came from the carriage ?" "Ah, sir, I forgot.Certainly.She wrote an answer, and the messenger carried it away with him." "And did the boy you speak of see anything more of the carriage ?" "He did not pass that way again, sir." My mind was now on the track of Marie's device.

The duke had sent his carriage to fetch her.