"No."
"Did you throw away what was left in the coffee-pot?"
"Why, yes, governor. You said it was so bad. You only took a few mouthfuls."
"Very well. Get the motor ready. We're leaving."
Lupin was not the man to remain in doubt. He wanted to have a decisive explanation with Dolores. But, for this, he must first clear up certain points that seemed to him obscure and see Jean Doudeville who had sent him some rather curious information from Veldenz.
He drove, without stopping, to the grand-duchy, which he reached at two o'clock. He had an interview with Count de Waldemar, whom he asked, upon some pretext, to delay the journey of the delegates of the Regency to Bruggen. Then he went in search of Doudeville, in a tavern at Veldenz.
Doudeville took him to another tavern, where he introduced him to a shabbily-dressed little gentleman, Herr Stockli, a clerk in the department of births, deaths and marriages. They had a long conversation. They went out together and all three passed stealthily through the offices of the town-hall. At seven o'clock, Lupin dined and set out again. At ten o'clock he arrived at Bruggen Castle and asked for Geneviève, so that she might take him to Mrs. Kesselbach's room.
He was told that Mlle. Ernemont had been summoned back to Paris by a telegram from her grandmother.
"Ah!" he said. "Could I see Mrs. Kesselbach?"
"Mrs. Kesselbach went straight to bed after dinner. She is sure to be asleep."