“What about the rest of the household, had they gone up to bed?”
“Madame had retired some time before. Denise and Léonie went up with me. Monsieur was still in his study.”
“Then, if any one unfastened the door afterwards, it must have been M. Renauld himself?”
Françoise shrugged her broad shoulders.
“What should he do that for? With robbers and assassins passing every minute! A nice idea! Monsieur was not an imbecile. It is not as though he had had to let cette dame out—”
The magistrate interrupted sharply:
“Cette dame? What lady do you mean?”
“Why, the lady who came to see him.”
“Had a lady been to see him that evening?”
“But yes, monsieur—and many other evenings as well.”