Giry looked into the envelope with a lackluster eye, which soon recovered its brilliancy.
But it was not the withered hand of the angry old beldame that fell on the managerial ear, but the envelope itself, the cause of all the trouble, the magic envelope that opened with the blow, scattering the bank-notes, which escaped in a fantastic whirl of giant butterflies.
"You tell me there were twenty-thousand francs in the envelope which I put into M.
Instead of that, he had intended, before his plans were nipped, to send me the clue in this
envelope. He says so in his note.
There he was, sitting with a newly opened envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the outstretched palm of the other one.
"He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried.
The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried orange pips.
"You were good enough to give me an appointment, sir," said I, humbly, producing his
envelope.
He seated himself at his desk and D'Artagnan proceeded to examine his face, as he had just examined the letter he held, but the
envelope which covered his countenance appeared as impenetrable as that which covered the letter.
"You are sure the grey envelope was in the left cupboard?" he asked.
"The grey envelope-- it was a white envelope really--was--"
"I'm frightened of a white envelope," said the other seriously, "If it had only just been grey!