“Buchanan, you trifle with Justice!”
“I have told you that my name is not Buchanan.”
“Then why did you forge that name in the hotel book?”
“I wrote it in the hurry and excitement of the moment; it was incorrect.”
“Why did you lie?” (Pourquoi avez vous menti?)
Maitland made an irritable movement
“You threaten Justice. Your attitude is deplorable. You are consigned au secret, and will have an opportunity of revising your situation, and replying more fully to the inquiries of Justice.”
So ended Maitland’s first and, happily, sole interview with a Juge d’Instruction. Lord Walter Brixton, his old St Gatien’s pupil, returned from the country on the very day of Maitland’s examination. An interview (during which Lord Walter laughed unfeelingly) with his old coach was not refused to the attaché, and, in a few hours, after some formalities had been complied with, Maitland was a free man. His pièces justificatives, his letters, cards, and return ticket to Charing Cross, were returned to him intact.
But Maitland determined to sacrifice the privileges of the last-named document.
“I am going straight to Constantinople and the Greek Islands,” he wrote to Barton. “Do you know, I don’t like Paris. My attempt at an investigation has not been a success. I have endured considerable discomfort, and I fear my case will get into the Figaro, and there will be dozens of ‘social leaders’ and ‘descriptive headers’ about me in all the penny papers.”