"You will, presently. Permit me to be brief. The point is this: four days ago, Mlle. Jeanne Darcieux...."
"That is my name," she said, smiling.
"Mlle. Jeanne Darcieux," continued Lupin, "wrote a letter to one of her friends, called Marceline, who lives at Versailles...."
"How do you know all that?" asked the girl, in astonishment. "I tore up the letter before I had finished it."
"And you flung the pieces on the edge of the road that runs from the house to Vendôme."
"That's true.... I had gone out walking...."
"The pieces were picked up and they came into my hands next day."
"Then ... you must have read them," said Jeanne Darcieux, betraying a certain annoyance by her manner.
"Yes, I committed that indiscretion; and I do not regret it, because I can save you."
"Save me? From what?"