"You have been told," he said, irritably. "If not, you would at least have started.... Ah, you are cleverer than I thought! But why pretend?"
He took the picture-book, which he had placed on a table close at hand, and, opening it at the cut page:
"Can you tell me," he asked, "in what order I am to arrange the letters missing here, so that I may understand the exact purport of the note which you sent to Bresson four days before the theft of the Jewish Lamp?"
"In what order?... Bresson?... The theft of the Jewish Lamp?"
She repeated the words, slowly, as though to make out their meaning.
He insisted:
"Yes, here are the letters you used ... on this scrap of paper. What were you saying to Bresson?"
"The letters I used...? What was I saying to...?"
Suddenly she burst out laughing:
"I see! I understand! I am an accomplice in the theft! There is a M. Bresson who stole the Jewish Lamp and killed himself. And I am the gentleman's friend! Oh, how amusing!"