“I cannot understand it,” he murmured.
“Could it be possible that the countess should have tutored the child to
say what she told us?”
“No.”
“And her governess?”
“Still less. A woman of that character trusts nobody. She struggles; she
triumphs or succumbs alone.”
“Then the child and the governess have told us the truth?”
“I am convinced of that.”
“So am I. Then she had no share in the murder of her husband?”
“Alas!”
M. Folgat did not notice that his “Alas!” was received by Dr. Seignebos
with an air of triumph. He had taken off his spectacles, and, wiping
them vigorously, he said,--
“If the countess is innocent, Jacques must be guilty, you think? Jacques
must have deceived us all, then?”