“The authorities are myself!”
At twelve o’clock Lupin received a telegram which the Masher had sent from Lyons:
“All well. Goods will arrive without damage.”
At three o’clock Clarisse woke. Her first words were:
“Is it to be to-morrow?”
He did not answer. But she saw him look so calm and smiling that she felt herself permeated with an immense sense of peace and received the impression that everything was finished, disentangled, settled according to her companion’s will.
They left the house at ten minutes past four. Prasville’s secretary, who had received his chief’s instructions by telephone, showed them into the office and asked them to wait. It was a quarter to five.
Prasville came running in at five o’clock exactly and, at once, cried:
“Have you the list?”
“Yes.”