“Of course I am nothing but an old fool, a maniac: I give it up; and I
say, like Horace’s man,--
‘Stultum me fateor, liceat concedere vires
Atque etiam insanum.’”
“You are joking. But what would have happened if I had listened to you?”
“I don’t care to know.”
“M. de Boiscoran would none the less have been sent to a jury.”
“May be.”
“Anybody else would have collected the proofs of his guilt just as well
as I.”
“That is a question.”
“And I should have injured my reputation very seriously; for they would
have called me one of those timid magistrates who are frightened at a
nothing.”
“That is as good a reputation as some others,” broke in the commonwealth
attorney.
He had vowed he would answer only in monosyllables; but his anger made
him forget his oath. He added in a very severe tone,--
“Another man would not have been bent exclusively upon proving that M.
de Boiscoran was guilty.”
“I certainly have proved it.”
“Another man would have tried to solve the mystery.”
“But I have solved it, I should think.”