Peggy smiled brightly. "Well," she said, "it would not be the first time you had said so, Sir Robert."
"Nor will it be the last, Mrs. Admaston," the K.C. replied with a courtly bow, and a really charming smile upon his face.
Then suddenly he stood a little more upright, shifted the gown upon his shoulders, touched his wig, and looked at Peggy keenly. He was once more the keen advocate doing his duty, whatever it might cost him in personal emotion.
"But we must pass on," he said. "Very well. You finished supper at last, and about 12.30 you went to bed. Your maid joined you and you got undressed." Here Sir Robert put his pince-nez upon his nose, and leant over to see the ground-plan of the rooms of the Hôtel des Tuileries, which the solicitor on the bench before him held up for his inspection.
Sir Robert looked at the coloured plan for a moment with intense scrutiny. Then, having refreshed his memory, he turned his face once more to the witness-box.
"Mr. Collingwood," he continued, "had left you by the door leading into the passage, I suppose?"
"Yes," Peggy replied.
"You had no idea that he was occupying the room communicating with yours?"
"None."
"You then sent your maid to bed?"