“Not to say how much I thank you for bringing our excellent commonwealth attorney with you. This is a veritable judicial visit”—
But he paused, chilled as he was by M. Daubigeon’s icy face, and amazed at M. Galpin’s refusal to take his proffered hand.
“Why,” he said, “what is the matter, my dear friend?”
The magistrate had never been stiffer in his life, when he replied,—
“We shall have to forget our relations, sir. It is not as a friend I come to-day, but as a magistrate.”
M. de Boiscoran looked confounded; but not a shadow of trouble appeared on his frank and open face.
“I’ll be hanged,” he said, “if I understand”—
“Let us go in,” said M. Galpin.
They went in; and, as they passed the door, Mechinet whispered into the attorney’s ear,—
“Sir, that man is certainly innocent. A guilty man would never have received us thus.”