“‘I am awaiting an answer, sir, to a request which I have just forwarded to the baroness.’
“‘What about?’
“‘Once sir, I was run over in the street by the baroness’s carriage: I was severely wounded, and had to be taken to the hospital.’
“I fancied there was something like terror in the man’s look.
“‘It is you, then, who once before sent a long letter to my wife, in which you told the story of your life?’
“‘Yes, sir, it was I.’
“‘You stated in that letter that you had no parents, having been left by your mother with some gardeners at Louveciennes?’
“‘That is the truth.’
“‘What has become of these gardeners?’
“‘They are dead.’