“Your enemy? There must be some mistake. Are you quite sure that you’re not making a mistake? I am Madame Pellegrini.”
“You’re not Madame Pellegrini.”
“But I assure you ...”
“You’re not!” the Baron exclaimed in a loud voice.
Then he added—and the words were little less disconcerting than those uttered a little while before by the Prince of Arcola:
“Pellegrini was one of the aliases adopted in the eighteenth century by the man whose daughter you pretend to be.”
She did not answer for a few seconds, seeming to be taken aback by the absurdity of the statement. Then she said tartly:
“Then what is my name—according to you?”
“Josephine Balsamo, Countess of Cagliostro.”