"By you!"
"Yes, monsieur."
"And what, my dear mademoiselle, had I done to merit so distinguished an honor?"
"Dear me! monsieur, it was chiefly what you hadn't done; and then the circumstantial evidence, you must confess, was strong."
"I realized that, also that in France it is not easy to get out of prison, once in it, innocent or guilty."
"So you kept out. Very wisely, monsieur. But you know the papers next morning spoke of Madeleine's lover, and talked of the lost clue of the Place St. Jacques, where we met."
"It certainly would have been suspicious under some circumstances," he admitted. "Now, if I had been her lover, for instance——"
"There! I went to the hospital. And don't you know, she would not betray the man who did it, though she suffered horribly. She will lose one of her eyes, poor girl!"
"Great heavens! What a misfortune!"
"Yes!"