Chapter
2
The Blue DiamondIN THE EVENING OF THE twenty-seventh of March, old General Baron d'Hautrec, who had been French Ambassador in Berlin under the Second Empire, was sleeping comfortably in an easy-chair in the house which his brother had left him six months before, at 134, Avenue Henri-Martin. His lady companion continued to read aloud to him, while Soeur Auguste warmed the bed and prepared the night-light.
As an exceptional case, the sister was returning to her convent that evening, to spend the night with the Mother Superior, and, at eleven o'clock, she said:
"I'm finished now, Mlle. Antoinette, and I'm going."
"Very well, sister."
"And don't forget that the cook is sleeping out to-night and that you are alone in the house with the man-servant."
"You need have no fear for m
