"Do you think so?"
"Mere child's play, my dear boy! And I think," he added, thoughtfully, "I think that, on the whole, this had better be your first piece of business. Ah! Wait!" he exclaimed with a sudden thought, "Did she ever mention that her own people were wealthy at the time of her marriage?"
Laroque scratched his head in an effort to remember.
"No, I don't think she ever did," he said at last "Why? It's the husband we'll have to see anyway? What have her people to do with it?"
"Why, don't you see," cried M. Perissard almost pityingly, "That if she is only a little past forty she must have married young and left her husband shortly afterward. The inference is that he was probably a young lawyer and without a great deal of money. He could not have married her unless she brought a dot."
"Well?" demanded Laroque, not catching the ether drift.
"Well, then! If he drove her out of the house she has a good claim to that money—unless he gave it to her then or later," he added anxiously. "Do you know?"
"I don't know whether she ever had a dot," replied Laroque, as the scheme dawned on him, "but if she did I'm certain that she didn't take it away with her."
"Excellent! Excellent!" exclaimed M. Perissard, pressing the palms of his hands together.
"Most excellent! Wonderful man!" breathed M. Merivel, with an upward glance of thanksgiving.