"Facts known to you alone," said Lupin.
"To me alone and to a few others."
"How do you mean, a few others? Hasn't the secret been kept?"
"Yes, yes, the secret has been well kept by all who know it. Have no fear; it is very much to their interest, I assure you, not to divulge it."
"Then how do you know it?"
"Through an old servant and private secretary of the Grand-duke Hermann, the last of the name. This servant, who died in my arms in South Africa, began by confiding to me that his master was secretly married and had left a son behind him. Then he told me the great secret."
"The one which you afterwards revealed to Kesselbach."
"Yes."
"One second . . . Will you excuse me? . . ."
Lupin bent over M. Formerie, satisfied himself that all was well and the heart beating normally, and said: