“You have traversed and opposed the action of the law. You have impeded me, the Chief of the Detective Service, in the execution of my duty. It is not the first time, but now you must answer for it.”
“Dear me!” said the General in the same flippant, irritating tone.
“You will have to accompany me now to the Prefecture.”
“And if it does not suit me to go?”
“I will have you carried there, bound, tied hand and foot, by the police, like any common rapscallion taken in the act who resists the authority of an officer.”
“Oho, you talk very big, sir. Perhaps you will be so obliging as to tell me what I have done.”
“You have connived at the escape of a criminal from justice—”
“That lady? Psha!”
“She is charged with a heinous crime—that in which you yourself were implicated—the murder of that man on the train.”
“Bah! You must be a stupid goose, to hint at such a thing! A lady of birth, breeding, the highest respectability—impossible!”