Garnache observed the silence, and drew his own conclusions.
"So we have sent for you, Valerie," said the Dowager, taking up her son's sentence, "that you may yourself assure Monsieur de Garnache that it is so." Her voice was stern; it bore to the girl's ears a subtle, unworded repetition of the threat the Marquise had already voiced.

Mademoiselle caught it, and Garnache caught it too, although he failed to interpret it as precisely as he would have liked.
The girl seemed to experience a difficulty in answering.

Her eyes roved to Garnache's, and fell away in affright before their glitter.

That man's glance seemed to read her very mind, she thought; and suddenly the reflection that had terrified her became her hope.

If it were as she deemed it, what matter what she said?
He would know the truth, in spite of all.
"Yes, madame," she said at last, and her voice was wholly void of expression.