He paused for a moment, and, speaking slowly and emphatically,
“Unless,” he added, “she should have behind her a very skillful and very prudent man. Or else that she should be in a situation where her extravagance could not have created any scandal.”
Mlle. Lucienne started. She fancied she understood the commissary’s idea, and could catch a glimpse of the truth.
“Good heavens!” she murmured.
But Maxence didn’t notice any thing, his mind being wholly bent upon following the commissary’s deductions.
“Or unless,” he said, “my father should have received almost nothing for his share of the enormous sums subtracted from the Mutual Credit, in which case he could have given relatively but little to that woman. M. Saint Pavin himself acknowledges that my father has been egregiously taken in.”
“By whom?”
Maxence hesitated for a moment.
“I think,” he said at last, “and several friends of my family (among whom M. Chapelain, an old lawyer) think as I do, that it is very strange that my father should have drawn millions from the Mutual Credit without any knowledge of the fact on the part of the manager.”
“Then, according to you, M. de Thaller must be an accomplice.”