“On the Baron de Thaller, sir! How, in the world, has he been able to compel Favoral to assume the responsibility of all, and to disappear? What enormous sum has he given to him?”
“Sir,” interrupted Maxence, “my father went off without a sou.”
M. Saint Pavin burst out in a loud laugh.
“And the twelve millions?” he asked. “What has become of them? Do you suppose they have been distributed in deeds of charity?”
And without waiting for any further objections,
“And yet,” he went on, “it is not with money alone that a man can be induced to disgrace himself, to confess himself a thief and a forger, to brave the galleys, to give up everything,—country, family, friends. Evidently the Baron de Thaller must have had other means of action, some hold on Favoral—”
M. de Tregars interrupted him.
“You speak,” he said, “as if you were absolutely certain of M. de Thaller’s complicity.”
“Of course.”
“Why don’t you inform on him, then?”