“That was only a polite way of getting rid of them.”
“Why?”
“Can you not understand, sir? I was resigned, but not comforted. I was learning to get accustomed to the terrible blow. Would not one seek solitude in the great crisis of one’s life?”
“The prosecution pretends that you wished to be left alone, that you might go to La Jonchere. During the day, you said, ‘She can not resist me.’ Of whom were you speaking?”
“Of some one to whom I had written the evening before, and who had replied to me. I spoke the words, with her letter still in my hands.”
“This letter was, then, from a woman?”
“Yes.”
“What have you done with it?”
“I have burnt it.”
“This precaution leads one to suppose that you considered the letter compromising.”