"He is, or rather he may be, if this justice in which I believe in spite of your joking permits him to be."
"You are talking in enigmas."
"What have you heard about Caffie since you went away?"
"Nothing, or almost nothing."
"You know it is thought that the crime was committed by a butcher."
"The commissioner picked up the knife before me, and it is certainly a butcher's knife. And more than that, the stroke that cut Caffie's throat was given by a hand accustomed to butchery. I have indicated this in my report."
"Since then, more careful investigations have discovered a trousers' button—"
"Which might have been torn off in a struggle between Caffie and his assassin, I read in a newspaper. But as for me, I do not believe in this struggle. Caffie's position in his chair, where he was assaulted and where he died, indicates that the old scamp was surprised. Otherwise, if he had not been, if he had struggled, he could have cried out, and, without doubt, he would have been heard."
"If you knew how happy I am to hear you say that!" she cried.
"Happy! What difference can it make to you?" and he looked at her in surprise. "Of what importance is it to you whether Caffie was killed with or without a struggle? You condemned him; he is dead. That should satisfy you."