Madame and the dark porter stayed outside some time longer; then she, too, came in, and disappeared.
Clon did not return with her, and when I went into the garden five minutes later, Louis also had vanished.

Save for two women who sat sewing at an upper window, the house seemed to be deserted.

Not a sound broke the afternoon stillness of room or garden, and yet I felt that more was happening in this silence than appeared on the surface.

I begin to grow curious--suspicious, and presently slipped out myself by way of the stables, and skirting the wood at the back of the house, gained with a little trouble the bridge which crossed the stream and led to the village.
Turning round at this point I could see the house, and I moved a little aside into the underwood, and stood gazing at the windows, trying to unriddle the matter.

It was not likely that M.de Cocheforet would repeat his visit so soon; and, besides, the women's emotions had been those of pure dismay and grief, unmixed with any of the satisfaction to which such a meeting, though snatched by stealth, must give rise.
I discarded my first thought therefore--that he had returned unexpectedly--and I sought for another solution.
But no other was on the instant forthcoming.