The latter was becoming impatient. He exclaimed,—
“Sir, do you think I am a man to be turned aside from my duty by considerations of friendship or personal interest?”
“I said nothing of the kind.”
“Did you not see just now how I carried on the inquiry? Did you see me start when Cocoleu first mentioned M. de Boiscoran’s name? If he had denounced any one else, I should probably have let the matter rest there. But precisely because M. de Boiscoran is a friend of mine, and because I have great expectations from him, I have insisted and persisted, and I do so still.”
The commonwealth attorney shrugged his shoulders.
“That is it exactly,” he said. “Because M. de Boiscoran is a friend of yours, you are afraid of being accused of weakness; and you are going to be hard, pitiless, unjust even, against him. Because you had great expectations from him, you will insist upon finding him guilty. And you call yourself impartial?”
M. Galpin assumed all his usual rigidity, and said solemnly,—
“I am sure of myself!”
“Have a care!”
“My mind is made up, sir.”