“No,” replied Godfrey d’Etigues. “I have only narrated these different adventures of yours in order to paint, in a few strokes, as vivid a picture of you as possible.”
“You think you have painted as vivid a picture of me as possible?”
“Yes; from the point of view that concerns us.”
“You are certainly easily satisfied,” she said in a faintly contemptuous tone. “And what are the links you think you see between these different adventures?”
“I see three kinds of links,” said the Baron with some heat. “First there is the evidence of all the people who have recognized you, thanks to whom we can go back, step by step, to the end of the eighteenth century. Next your own avowal of your claims.”
“What avowal?”
“You have repeated to the Prince of Arcola the very terms of a conversation which took place between the two of you in the station at Modena.”
“So I did!” she said. “And then?”
“And then I have here three portraits, all three of which are portraits of you. Are they not?”
She looked at them and said: “Yes. They are portraits of me.”