[13] Omniscient am I not, yet much is known to me.
Faust, part 1, act 4.
THE SHADOW OF DEATH
Que l'oumbro, e toujour l'oumbro, es pire que la mort![14]
Mistal (Mireille Chant xii.)
'Fleet footed is the approach of woe
But with a lingering step and slow
Its form departs.'—Longfellow, Coplas de Manrique.
Dr. Roux was a man who had risen to his present position by strict attention to his profession. He was an able man, and thoroughly versed in all the mysteries of his art. His reports to the Juge d'Instruction were always models of accuracy and precision, and were accepted without question by the Parquet. But now he confessed he was in a dilemma. "Here is a nice state of things," he soliloquised, "I come to Dr. Villebois' house for the purpose of making a post-mortem examination, and after getting everything ready to begin, two doctors whom I have never seen before persuade me to abandon my task. Now if I say he is dead I shall be blamed for not performing the autopsy; but if, on the other hand, I state that he is not dead, they will naturally ask me what proofs I have, and I must confess I have none. I had better talk it over with Paul Romaine. I fancy he will be at leisure during the afternoon."
"Well, it is too late now, he will have gone home."
The next day at four o'clock Roux knocked at the door of the Government laboratory.