Gently disengaging himself from the grasp of Adrienne, who had involuntarily pressed close to him, the physician opened a small side-
door, by which he instantly disappeared.Adrienne de Cardoville was left alone.
Though she could not have explained the cause of her impression, there was something awe-inspiring to the young lady in this large, cold, naked, curtainless room; and as, by degrees, she noticed certain peculiarities in the furniture, which she had not at first perceived, she was seized with an indefinable feeling of uneasiness.
Approaching the cheerless hearth, she perceived with surprise that an iron grating completely enclosed the opening of the chimney, and that the tongs and shovel were fastened with iron chains.Already astonished by this singularity, she was about mechanically to draw towards her an armchair placed against the wall, when she found that it remained motionless.She then discovered that the back of this piece of furniture, as well as that of all the other chairs, was fastened to the wainscoting by iron clamps.Unable to repress a smile, she exclaimed:
"Have they so little confidence in the statesman in whose house I am, that they are obliged to fasten the furniture to the walls?"
Adrienne had recourse to this somewhat forced pleasantry as a kind of effort to resist the painful feeling of apprehension that was gradually creeping over her; for the most profound and mournful silence reigned in this habitation, where nothing indicated the life, the movement and the activity, which usually surround a great centre of business.Only, from time to time, the young lady heard the violent gusts of wind from without.
More than a quarter of an hour had elapsed, and M.Baleinier did not return.In her impatient anxiety, Adrienne wished to call some one to inquire about the doctor and the minister.She raised her eyes to look for a bell-rope by the side of the chimney-glass; she found none, but she perceived, that what she had hitherto taken for a glass, thanks to the half obscurity of the room, was in reality a large sheet of shining tin.