"How instruct the doctor on the instant?" resumed the princess.

"To send for him would be to rouse the suspicions of your niece," said M.
d'Aigrigny, thoughtfully; "and we must avoid that before everything."

"Of course," answered the princess; "her confidence in the doctor is one
of our greatest resources."

"There is a way," said the abbe quickly; "I will write a few words in
haste to Baleinier: one of your people can take the note to him, as if it
came from without--from a patient dangerously ill."

"An excellent idea!" cried the princess. "You are right. Here--upon this
table--there is everything necessary for writing. Quick! quick--But will
the doctor succeed?"

"In truth, I scarcely dare to hope it," said the marquis, sitting down at
the table with repressed rage. "Thanks to this examination, going beyond
our hopes, which our man, hidden behind the curtain, has faithfully taken
down in shorthand--thanks to the violent scenes, which would necessarily
have occurred to-morrow and the day after--the doctor, by fencing himself
round with all sorts of clever precautions, would have been able to act
with the most complete certainty. But to ask this of him to-day, on the
instant!--Herminia--it is folly to think of!"--The marquis threw down the
pen which he held in his hand; then he added, in a tone of bitter and
profound irritation: "At the very moment of success--to see all our hopes
destroyed!--Oh, the consequences of all this are incalculable. Your niece
will be the cause of the greatest mischief--oh! the greatest injury to
us."