"I tried to make Mme. Steinheil repeat what she had said to Mariette, and after much hesitation she told me she had asked Mariette: 'If they arrest me, and the truth is discovered, what will you do?' and that Mariette had replied: 'I'll deny everything.'
"After a while—Mme. Chabrier was then upstairs, and I was in the dining-room with M. Chabrier—we heard a door being opened on the ground floor, and M. Chabrier saw that 'Champagne'—the dog—was in the garden. We thought that Mariette had gone to warn her son. Mme. Chabrier (who had come down) was exceedingly alarmed, and said that Alexandre Wolff would perhaps come and kill them. M. Chabrier then went upstairs to fetch a revolver. The dog was still in the garden. Following my advice, M. Chabrier went to fill a decanter with water in the kitchen, to see whether Mariette was in her lodge. When he returned, he said she was there.
"Soon afterwards Mariette came to us in the dining-room. At that very moment Mme. Steinheil called to me from her room. I went to her, and she again besought me to kill her, because she would be unable to prove what she had said about Alexandre Wolff. She again asked me to give her strychnine, and to fetch the doctor.
"Meanwhile, Mariette had returned to her lodge. Mme. Chabrier went there, and when she returned she told us: 'I found Mariette with a revolver in her hand, and she said, "That's my last hope."' Mme. Chabrier added that Mariette had declared that she had already tried to commit suicide with the gas-pipe, and that she had let the dog into the garden so that it should not be asphyxiated.... That had happened at about the time when M. Chabrier had gone to fetch the water.
"Mme. Chabrier fetched Mariette. The latter was tottering, and her face was livid.
"Addressing herself to me, Mariette said: 'Tell me what has happened. I prefer anything rather than to be like this in the dark.' We told her that there was nothing the matter, and spoke some kind words to her.
"It was then about 4 A.M.
"At that time, M. Bourse, a colleague of mine on the staff of the Matin, arrived.
"He said to M. Chabrier: 'The newspapers are about to appear and render public Mme. Steinheil's confession. The crowd, since yesterday, is very hostile; it is to be feared that the mob may proceed to acts of violence against Mme. Steinheil and those who live in this house. Mme. Steinheil had better leave the place and go to some friends or to a hotel to await the time when she can see M. Leydet.
"M. Chabrier agreed to this but remarked that it would be better to go straight to the Sûreté. M. Chabrier told Mme. Steinheil and Mlle. Marthe this, and both accepted the suggestion.