"
"No, mademoiselle, he burnt it."
Claire drew back. She imagined she felt a touch of irony in the
magistrate's reply. There was none, however. M. Daburon remembered the
letter thrown into the fire by Albert on the Tuesday afternoon. It could
only been the one Claire had sent him. It was to her, then, that the
words, "She cannot resist me," applied. He understood, now, the action
and the remark.
"Can you understand, mademoiselle," he next asked, "how M. de Commarin
could lead justice astray, and expose me to committing a most deplorable
error, when it would have been so easy to have told me all this?"
"It seems to me, sir, that an honourable man cannot confess that he has
obtained a secret interview from a lady, until he has full permission
from her to do so. He ought to risk his life sooner than the honour of
her who has trusted in him; but be assured Albert relied on me."
There was nothing to reply to this; and the sentiments expressed by
Mademoiselle d'Arlange gave a meaning to one of Albert's replies in the
examination.
"This is not all yet, mademoiselle," continued the magistrate; "all that
you have told me here, you must repeat in my office, at the Palais de
Justice.
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