"Speak! speak!" cried M. d'Imblevalle.
She did not speak.
He insisted:
"One word will clear you.... One word of protest and I will believe you."
That word she did not utter.
The baron stepped briskly across the room, returned, went back again and then, addressing Shears:
"Well, no, sir! I refuse to believe it true! There are some crimes which are impossible! And this is opposed to all that I know, all that I have seen for a year." He put his hand on the Englishman's shoulder. "But are you yourself, sir, absolutely and definitely sure that you are not mistaken?"
Shears hesitated, like a man attacked unawares, who does not defend himself at once. However, he smiled and said:
"No one but the person whom I accuse could, thanks to the position which she fills in your house, know that the Jewish lamp contained that magnificent jewel."
"I refuse to believe it," muttered the baron.