"Monsieur Tellier, relate to him—"
"If Tellier so much as moves a finger, I will kick him down the stairs," added the Prince, still more calmly.
"But he has the papers from the notary!"
"That is nothing to me."
The duchess made a gesture of despair.
"Yet, after all," she cried, "that is a little thing beside this other. Look at this," and she snatched a folded paper from the table at her elbow. "She is a traitor to you—she has been playing with you—she has been assisting these Englishmen to deceive you! You who are such a stickler for honour in women no less than men! Look at this!"
"What is this paper?" asked the Prince, making no motion to take it from her eager hand.
"It is a note which this impostor wrote to her and to her sister."
"And obtained how?" he questioned, a little pale, but keeping himself well in hand.
"Obtained by Monsieur Tellier," replied the duchess. "It does not matter how."