“I think we shall save you that trouble, Mademoiselle. After the body is found we shall have to ask the Count and Countess to submit to a short interrogation. We should not dream of troubling them were it not that this Mr. Ponting had a friend who is much distressed at his disappearance. We shall be glad, therefore, to know exactly how he spent his last evening. Did you yourself see him leave La Solitude?”
“No,” said Lily. “I had only arrived that day, and I went to bed early; but I heard the Countess say good-bye to him about a quarter of an hour after I had gone upstairs. As the house is not very substantially built, one hears everything.”
“That is an important point,” said M. Bouton. “You heard him leave the house, and then no more? You did not hear the shot fired, Mademoiselle?”
“I heard nothing at all. But I was very, very tired, and I went to sleep at once.”
She wondered if she ought to say anything about the burglary which had taken place that night. Then she remembered what both the Countess and the banker had said that bringing the police into the affair would only make a fuss and an unpleasantness for nothing. So she remained silent.
At last M. Bouton conducted them to his front door. He bowed to Lily, and shook hands warmly with M. Popeau.
“Without knowing it,” he exclaimed, “you’ve done me a great service, my good friend! I confess I do not like being disturbed on Sunday—the weekdays are full enough of trouble and of perplexing affairs. But I am more glad than I can say that what I may call the Ponting mystery has been cleared up in so satisfactory a manner. We’ve had a great deal of worry over the matter. But the cleverest of my detectives—I call him the bloodhound—was convinced that M. Ponting was not only alive, but far from here engaged in having a very good time! The theory of suicide we had completely dismissed from our minds. Does not this show how wrong even the most experienced people may be when dealing with human life and human problems?”
After they had walked a little way in silence, Lily suddenly turned to her companion and exclaimed: “I’m afraid you did not approve of my telling M. Bouton that I knew about poor Mr. Ponting?”
“As a general rule, my dear young lady, the innocent cannot say too little to the police. But I confess that this time I was wrong; I’m very glad that you spoke with complete frankness, though I do not suppose the Count and Countess will be pleased——”
“I don’t see why they should mind,” but even as she uttered the words a slight feeling of discomfort came over Lily.