"Yes, he did suspect somebody, Verbier," he said, "and that was your
charming neighbour Mlle. Jeanne there."
Verbier turned towards the young cashier.
"What? The magistrate tried to make out that you were implicated in it?"
The girl had only spoken a few words during the whole of dinner,
although Henri Verbier had made several gallant attempts to draw her
into the general conversation. Now she laughingly protested.
"M. Louis only says that to tease me."
But M. Louis stuck to his guns.
"Not a bit of it, Mademoiselle Jeanne: I said it because it is the
truth. The magistrate was on to you: I tell you he was! Why, M. Verbier,
he cross-examined her for more than half an hour after the general
confrontation, while he finished with Muller and me in less than ten
minutes."
"Gad, M. Louis, a magistrate is a man, isn't he?" said Henri Verbier
gallantly. "The magistrate may have enjoyed talking to Mlle. Jeanne more
than he did to you, if I may suggest it without seeming rude."
There was a general laugh at this sally on the part of the new
superintendent, and then M. Louis continued:
"Well, if he wanted to make up to her he went a funny way to work, for
he made her angry."
"Did he really?" said Henri Verbier, turning again to the girl. "Why did
the magistrate cross-examine you so much?"
The young cashier shrugged her shoulders.
"We have thrashed it out so often, M. Verbier! But I will tell you the
whole story: during the morning of the day when the robbery was
committed I had returned to Princess Sonia Danidoff the pocket-book
containing a hundred and twenty thousand francs which she had given into
my custody a few days before; I could not refuse to give it to her when
she asked for it, could I? How was I to know that it would be stolen
from her the same evening? Customers deposit their valuables with me and
I hand them a receipt: they give me back the receipt when they demand
their valuables, and all I have to do is comply with their request,
without asking questions. Isn't that so?"
"But that was not what puzzled the magistrate I suppose," said Henri
Verbier. "You are the custodian of all valuables, and you only complied
strictly with your orders."
"Yes," M. Muller broke in, "but Mlle. Jeanne has only told you part of
the story. Just fancy: only a few minutes before the robbery Mme. Van
den Rosen had asked Mlle. Jeanne to take charge of her diamond necklace,
and Mlle. Jeanne had refused!"
"That really was bad luck for you," said Henri Verbier to the girl with
a laugh, "and I quite understand that the magistrate thought it rather
odd."
"They are unkind!" she protested. "From the way they put it, M.
Verbier, you really might think that I refused to take charge of Mme.
Van den Rosen's jewellery in order to make things easy for the thief,
which is as much as to say that I was his accomplice."
"That is precisely what the magistrate did think," M. Louis
interpolated.
The girl took no notice of the interruption, but went on with her
explanation to Henri Verbier.
"What happened was this: the rule is that I am at the disposal of
customers, to take charge of deposits or to return them to the owners,
until nine P.M., and until nine P.M. only. After that, my time is up,
and all I have to do is lock my safe and go: I am free until nine
o'clock next morning. You know that it does not do to take liberties in
a position like mine. So when, on the day of the robbery, Mme. Van den
Rosen came with her diamond necklace at half-past nine, I was perfectly
within my rights in refusing to accept the deposit."
"That's right enough," said M. Muller, who, having finished his dessert,
was now sipping coffee into which he had tipped sugar until it was as
thick as syrup: "but you were disobliging, my dear young lady, and that
was what struck the magistrate; for really it would not have been much
trouble to register the new deposit and take charge of Mme. Van den
Rosen's necklace for her."
"No, it wouldn't," the girl replied; "but when there is a rule it seems
to me that it ought to be obeyed. My time is up at nine o'clock, and I
am forbidden to accept any deposits after nine o'clock: and that's why I
refused that lady's. I was perfectly right; and I should do the same
again, if the same thing happened."
Henri Verbier was manifestly anxious to conciliate the young cashier. He
expressed his approval of her conduct now.
"I quite agree with you, it never does to put interpretations upon
orders. It was your duty to close your safe at nine o'clock, and you did
close it then, and no one can say anything to you. But, joking apart,
what did the magistrate want?"
The girl shrugged her shoulders with a gesture of indifference.
"You see I was right just now: M. Louis is only trying to tease me by
saying that the magistrate cross-examined me severely. As a matter of
fact I was simply asked what I have just told you, and when I gave all
this explanation, no fault at all was found with me." As she spoke,
Mlle. Jeanne folded her napkin carefully, pushed back her chair and
shook hands with her two neighbours at table. "Good night," she said. "I
am going up to bed."
Mlle. Jeanne had hardly left the room before Henri Verbier also rose
from the table and prepared to follow her example.