“I shan’t tire you,” he said. “I want to ask you a few questions. Are you in condition to answer them?”
“Certainly.”
“Ah well, you have been the victim of a madman of sorts whom the police have been watching and whom they’re going to shut up. So there is no longer any danger. But I want you to clear up a point if you can.”
“What is it?”
“What is this bandeau set with jewels? Who did you get it from?” he said.
He perceived that she hesitated. However she said: “They are stones I found in an old casket.”
“A wooden casket?” he asked quickly.
“Yes—all smashed and not even locked. It was hidden under a heap of straw in a loft in the little house in the country my mother lived in.”
“Where?”
“At Lillebonne, between Rouen and le Havre.”