After a peace during which he watched her with increasing surprise, he asked:
“And have you your mother’s papers, your father’s papers?”
“What papers?”
“Why, their birth-certificates, your own, their marriage-certificate, in fact, everything that established their position and now establishes yours.”
“I haven’t them.”
“But they must be somewhere.... Can you give me no clue as to where they are?”
“No.... But I seem to remember once hearing them talk of papers that had been lost ... or rather burnt in a fire ... or else ... in fact, I can’t say for certain.” ...
“Come, come!” cried Maître Dufornéril. “We are on the wrong track altogether! Let us start from the beginning. Where were you born?”
“I don’t know.”