No relief was granted to him. The Count talked freely and well on a
variety of questions till eleven o'clock, and then proposed to show his
guest to his bedroom. Dieppe accepted the offer in despair, but he
would have sat up all night had there seemed any chance of the Count's
becoming more explicit.

The Cardinal's Room was a large apartment situated on the upper floor
(there were but two), about the middle of the house; its windows looked
across the river, which rippled pleasantly in the quiet of the night
when Dieppe flung up the sash and put his head out. He turned first to
the left. Save his own room, all was dark: the Count, no doubt, slept
at the back. Then, craning his neck, he tried to survey the right
wing. The illumination was quenched; light showed in one window only,
a window on the same level with his and distant from it perhaps forty
feet. With a deep sigh the Captain drew his head back and shut out the
chilly air.

Ah, there was an inner door on the right hand side of the room; that
the Captain had not noticed before. Walking up to it, he perceived
that it was bolted at top and bottom; but the key was in the lock. He
stood and looked at this door; it seemed that it must lead, either
directly or by way of another apartment between, to the room whose
lights he had just seen. He pulled his moustache thoughtfully; and he
remembered that there was a person whom the Count particularly wished
to avoid and, owing (in some way) to a cat, could not rely on being
able to avoid if he slept in the Cardinal's Room.

"Well, then--" began Dieppe with a thoughtful frown. "Oh, I can't
stand it much longer!" he ended, with a smile and a shrug.

And then there came--the Captain was really not surprised, he had been
almost expecting it--a mew, a peevish, plaintive mew. "I won't open
that door," said the Captain. The complaint was repeated. "Poor
beast!" murmured the Captain. "Shut up in that--in that--deuce take
it, in that what?" His hand shot up to the top bolt and pressed it
softly back. "No, no," said he. Another mew defeated his struggling
conscience. Pushing back the lower bolt in its turn, he softly
unlocked the door and opened it cautiously. There in the passage--for
a narrow passage some twelve or fifteen feet long was revealed--near
his door, visible in the light from his room, was a large, sleek,
yellow cat from whose mouth was proceeding energetic lamentation. But
on sight of Dieppe the