Monseigneur listened with an air of admiration, and M. Lantaigne drew up from his inexhaustible memory endless texts relating to the ceremonies of purification, precedents, arguments, commentaries.
“John, Chapter X., verse 22 … the Roman Pontifical … the Venerable Bede, Baronius …”
He spoke for three-quarters of an hour.
After this the Cardinal-Archbishop replied:
“It should be noted that the hanged man was found in the porch of the side door, on the epistle side.”
“Was the inner door of the porch closed?” asked M. Lantaigne.
“Alas! alas!” answered Monseigneur, “it was not wide open … but neither was it completely shut.”
“Ajar, Monseigneur?”
“That’s it! Ajar.”
“And the suicide, Monseigneur, was within the space covered by the porch? That is a point which it is materially important to ascertain. Your Eminence perceives the whole importance of that?”