The second letter, which reached her the same day, was from Mr.
Mountjoy. He told her what he had told Mrs. Vimpany: he would give her
the money, because he recognised the spirit of fidelity which caused
Fanny to go first to Paris and then to Berne.
But he could not pretend to any right to interference in the affairs of
Lord and Lady Harry Norland. He enclosed a _mandat postal_ for a
hundred and twenty-five francs, which he hoped would be sufficient for
her immediate wants.
She started on her return-journey on the same day--namely, Saturday. On
Sunday evening she was in a pension at Passy, ready to make those
inquiries. The first person whom she sought out was the _rentier_--the
landlord of the cottage. He was a retired tradesman--one who had made
his modest fortune in a _charcuterie_ and had invested it in house
property. Fanny told him that she had been lady's-maid to Lady Harry
Norland, in the recent occupancy of the cottage, and that she was
anxious to know her present address.
"Merci, mon Dieu! que sais-je? What do I know about it?" he replied.
"The wife of the English milord is so much attached to her husband that
she leaves him in his long illness--"
"His long illness?"
"Certainly--Mademoiselle is not, perhaps, acquainted with the
circumstances--his long illness; and does not come even to see his dead
body after he is dead.
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