"Best thing for her, just now," said he, crisply; "she can't think. Furthermore, she needs a sedative to keep her from thinking for a while." Then to her father:
"Here, you, you take her home on the double-quick. Have in your physician. Let her cousin get her in bed."
It is likely that Alfred Fluette had not been addressed for many a day with such cavalier brusqueness, and overpowering indeed must have been his emotions now that he did not notice the doctor's abrupt manner. Even his daughter's condition seemed to produce only a momentary impression upon him; for by the time Maillot and Dr. De Breen had conveyed the limp girl to a divan, where Genevieve continued to minister to her, he was excitedly striving to catch the doctor's attention.
"Listen to me, sir," he commanded, his voice trembling, "you are the one in authority here; this young man must not be remanded to jail."
Dr. De Breen stopped short and fixed him with a look of surprise. And I was not a little surprised myself. Knowing how bitterly opposed he had been to Maillot's attentions to Miss Belle, what was I to think? Did the manner in which the shock had prostrated her—had literally felled her to the floor—open his eyes to the depth of their attachment, and at the same time touch his heart with pity? His concern could not have been more pronounced if the young fellow had been his own son placed in similar jeopardy. Or—and here was my predominating thought—did he have the best of reasons for knowing that Maillot was innocent?
During the brief pause in which Dr. De Breen coolly surveyed him—for once the perverse glasses observing their proper function—he recovered something of his equipoise.
"See here, Doctor," he went on more calmly, "I am not familiar enough with the proper procedure in—er—in criminal cases to know just what I want to say. But is the next step imprisonment for Mr. Maillot?"
"It is," snapped the doctor.
"Then I will go his bond—in any amount; but he must not go to—"
"My dear sir," Dr. De Breen interrupted, with asperity, "a prisoner under charge of first degree murder cannot be admitted to bail; not even by the court having jurisdiction of his case, much less I. The police are now responsible for the young man's movements."