“Monsieur?”

“Amedee!”

“Eh, but I did not find him at Pere Baudry’s! It may have happened that I stopped there, but he did not come until some time after.”

“After you had gone away from Pere Baudry’s, you mean?”

“No, monsieur; after I arrived there. Truly.”

“Now we have it! And you gave him the news of all that had happened here?”

“Monsieur!”

A world—no, a constellation, a universe!—of reproach was in the word.

“I retract the accusation,” I said promptly. “I meant something else.”

“Upon everything that takes place at our hotel here, I am silent to all the world.”