“But, granting that I have seen her, what does that prove against me?”
“You did it to plunge her into that inexplicable sleep which she has felt three times at your approach and which you took advantage of to commit a crime.”
“Again, who says this?”
“My sister!”
“How could she know, being asleep?”
“Ah, you confess that she was put to sleep?”
“More than that, I put her to sleep.”
“In what end—to dishonor her?”
“In what end, alas!” said the mesmerist, letting his head fall on his breast. “To have her reveal a secret more precious than life. And during that night—— ”
“My sister is a mother!”