"You will please come with me, Mademoiselle," puffed the fat old fellow. "I will be your escort, and you shall have the satisfaction of seeing the rascals who played such a mean trick upon you properly punished."
Nadine, dear little soul, was so happy at the affair having terminated without any ill consequences, that she had not the slightest desire for vengeance upon the perpetrators of the mischief, and would fain have let the matter rest. But of course a summons from the Préfet could not be disregarded, so, leaving to Cæsar the packing-up, she accompanied the gendarme.
In the Mayor's office she found a number of people, and among them three very miserable looking schoolboys, who were presently subjected to a sharp examination.
It seemed that the absence of the boys from the school had been detected by one of the teachers, who set himself to discover what it meant, and by clever investigation had got to the bottom of the affair, whereupon, not knowing how serious the outcome might be, he had reported it to the authorities.
Raoul and two others were accordingly haled to the Préfet's office for a sort of preliminary examination, and Nadine was called upon to be prosecutor.
Instead, however, of presenting her complaint, she put in an earnest plea for the culprits, who were much about her own age.
"Please, your Honor, I don't want them to be punished. Nalla is not a bit the worse for his fright. Indeed," she added naïvely, "he is the better for it by such a fine breakfast of vegetables as he has not had for a long time."
A ripple of laughter ran around the crowd at this charming little speech, and the Préfet with a gallant bow to Nadine, said, graciously:
"You make a very good advocate, Mademoiselle, and as you do not want to appear as prosecutor in the matter I will dismiss the accused, and let the authorities of the school deal with them as they see fit for the infraction of discipline. Permit me to congratulate you upon the fortunate termination of the accident."