“Well?” she asked.
“The report, madam, must be false,” replied the advocate.
“Who knows?”
“His evasion would be a confession of his crime. It is only the guilty who try to escape; and M. de Boiscoran is innocent. You can rest quite assured, madam, it is not so. I pray you be quiet.”
Who would not have pitied the poor girl at that moment? She was as white as her collar, and trembled violently. Big tears ran over her eyes; and at each word a violent sob rose in her throat.
“You know where Jacques went last night?” she asked again.
“Yes.”
She turned her head a little aside, and went on, in a hardly audible voice,—
“He went to see once more a person whose influence over him is, probably, all powerful. It may be that she has upset him, stunned him. Might she not have prevailed upon him to escape from the disgrace of appearing in court, charged with such a crime?”
“No, madam, no!”