"I think not."
"How long had Monsieur de Maucroix been an avowed admirer of your daughter?"
"Only a few months—since Easter, I think. My granddaughter used to see him when she was staying with her aunt."
"Could you reconcile it to your conscience to allow your grandchild to live in the house of an aunt who was leading—well, we will say a doubtful life?"
"There was no harm in my daughter's life that I knew of. Monsieur Georges may have been my daughter's husband. There is no reason that he should not have been. At her lodgings she was known as Madame Georges. It was under that name she travelled when she went abroad."
"But you had never heard of any marriage—at the Mairie or elsewhere? And, again, your daughter could not be married without your consent."
"I do not say that she had been married in France. She may have been married abroad—in England, perhaps. He took her to England soon after they became acquainted. It was the first time she left Paris with him; and until then I know she had been as distant to him as if she had been the Empress. In England there are no obstacles to marriage; there is no one's consent to be asked."
"We will admit that a marriage in a foreign country would have been possible. But this Maxime de Maucroix, this second admirer——"
"Was only an admirer. My daughter's life was not a disreputable life. I have nothing to reproach myself with upon that score."
"Can you help us to find this man Georges, whom you suspect as the murderer? Do you know where he is to be found?"