"You had no ears." And I am sorry to say that Jean winked, insinuating that Marie Delhasse and I had been preoccupied.
The diplomacy of non-recognition had failed to strike Jean.

I made the best of a bad job, and asked: "What brings you here ?" Marie stood a few paces off, regarding us.
"I'm looking for Mme.

la Duchesse," grinned Jean.
Marie Delhasse took a step forward when she heard his reference to the duchess.
"Her absence was discovered by Suzanne at six o'clock this morning," the old fellow went on.

"And the duke--ah, take care how you come near him, sir! Oh, it's a kettle of fish! For as I came I met that coxcomb Lafleur riding back with a message from the duke's guests that they would not come to-day! So the duchess is gone, and the ladies are not come; and the duke--he has nothing to do but curse that whippersnapper of a Pierre who came last night." And Jean ended in a rapturous hoarse chuckle.
"You were riding so fast, then, because you were after the duchess ?" I suggested.
"I rode fast for fear," said Jean, with a shrewd smile, "that I should stop somewhere on the road.

Well, I have looked in Avranches.