"Explain yourself, Mademoiselle."
She answered:
"I have nothing to explain, Monsieur le Préfet. I have come to you on an
errand which I am fulfilling without knowing exactly what it is about."
"What do you mean? Without knowing what it is about?"
"I will tell you, Monsieur le Préfet. Some one in whom I have every
confidence and for whom I entertain the greatest respect asked me to hand
you certain papers. They appear to concern the question which is the
object of your meeting to-day."
"The question of awarding the Mornington inheritance?"
"Yes."
"You know that, if this claim had not been made in the course of the
present sitting, it would have had no effect?"
"I came as soon as the papers were handed to me."
"Why were they not handed to you an hour or two earlier?"
"I was not there. I had to leave the house where I am staying, in a
hurry."
Perenna did not doubt that it was his intervention that upset the enemy's
plans by causing Florence to take to flight.
The Prefect continued:
"So you are ignorant of the reasons why you received the papers?"
"Yes, Monsieur le Préfet."
"And evidently you are also ignorant of how far they concern you?"
"They do not concern me, Monsieur le Préfet."