“Be it so. But how would that help us? Do you think that a demand for a change of venue would prevent M. Galpin from carrying on the proceedings? Not at all. He would go on until the decision comes from the Court of Appeals. He could, it is true, issue no final order; but that is the very thing M. de Boiscoran ought to desire, since such an order would make an end to his close confinement, and enable him to see an advocate.”
“That is atrocious!” murmured M. de Chandore.
“It is atrocious, indeed; but such are the laws of France.”
In the meantime Dionysia had been meditating; and now she said to the young advocate,—
“I have understood you perfectly, and to-morrow your objections shall be known to M. de Boiscoran.”
“Above all,” said the lawyer, “explain to him clearly that any such steps as he proposes to take will turn to his disadvantage. M. Galpin is our enemy; but we can make no specific charge against him. They would always reply, ‘If M. de Boiscoran is innocent, why does he not speak?’”
This is what Grandpapa Chandore would not admit.
“Still,” he said, “if we could bring influential men to help us?”
“Can you?”
“Certainly. Boiscoran has old friends, who, no doubt, are all-powerful still under the present government. He was, in former years, very intimate with M. de Margeril.”