"Then is there no truth in that woman's statement?" asked Orsino.
"Madame d'Aranjuez seemed perfectly sane when I last saw her," answered Spicca indifferently.
"Then what possible interest had the maid in inventing the lie?"
"Ah—what interest? That is quite another matter, as you say. It may not have been her own interest."
"You think that Madame d'Aranjuez had instructed her?"
"Not necessarily. Some one else may have suggested the idea, subject to the lady's own consent."
"And she would have consented? I do not believe that."
"My dear Orsino, the world is full of such apparently improbable things that it is always rash to disbelieve anything on the first hearing. It is really much less trouble to accept all that one is told without question."
"Of course, if you tell me positively that she wishes to be thought mad—"
"I never say anything positively, especially about a woman—and least of all about the lady in question, who is undoubtedly eccentric."