‘And what is it?’
‘He has been a prisoner in a French gaol.’
She answered with composure, ‘I should think that very likely.’
‘But in a gaol for criminals, mother. On an accusation of murder.’
She started at the word, and her looks expressed her natural horror. Yet she still spoke aloud, when she demanded:—
‘Who told you so?’
‘A man who was his fellow-prisoner.’
‘That man’s antecedents, I suppose, were not known to you, before he told you?’
‘No.’
‘Though the man himself was?’