Then, lowering his voice so that Mario could not hear:
"You told me, and it has seemed to me that that young woman was very honest. But can she have stolen this dagger from our guest? That is something that I cannot endure, that there should be thieving in my house."
Adamas instantly espoused his master's suspicions, especially as Mario, feeling that he had spoken heedlessly, was gliding out of the room on tiptoe, to avoid further questions. Adamas detained him.
"You have been telling us fairy tales, my pretty boy," said he, "and for that you deserve to lose my lord and master's favor. It is not true that your Mercedes has what you say she has, or——"
The marquis interrupted him, not wishing that the charge should be made before the child.
"Has your mother had the dagger a long time, my boy?" he said.
The child had passed some time with the gypsies, so he knew what stealing was. He was blest, moreover, with extraordinary shrewdness. He understood the suspicion he had brought on his adopted mother, and he preferred to disobey her rather than not justify her.
"Yes," he replied, "a very long time."
And, as he had assumed an exceedingly proud and self-assured air, the marquis and Adamas felt that they had in their hands a means of making him speak.
"Then it was Monsieur de Villareal who gave it to her?" said Adamas.