“Valerius is an honest man.”
“It is because he cannot work when political, or rather patriotic, affairs go wrong, that you say this.”
“And why not? With a poor man who lives in a small way by his work, are not this care and pride in his country marks of an honorable heart?”
“I grant the honorable heart, but it is another reason for being prudent with him,” Phillis said. “Precisely because he may be what you think, reserve is necessary. You tell him what is passed. If he accepts it and your innocence, it is well; he will not betray your secret voluntarily nor by stupidity. But he will not accept it; he will look beyond. He will suppose that you wish to deceive him, and he will suspect you. In that case, would he not go and tell all to the police commissioner of our quarter? As for me, I think it is a danger that it would be foolish to risk.”
“And, according to you, what is to be done?”
“Nothing; that is, wait, since there are a thousand chances against one for our uneasiness, and we exaggerate those that may never be realized.”
“Well, let us wait,” he said. “Moreover, I like that; at the least, I have no responsibilities. What can happen will happen.”
CHAPTER XIX. THE KNOCK AT THE DOOR
In order to put the button found at Caffies on the track of the assassin, it required that it should have come from a Parisian tailor, or, at least, a French one, and that the trousers had not been sold by a ready-made clothing-house, where the names of customers are not kept.