"No ... not I.... I'll explain to you...."
Catherine brought him a cup of coffee, which he swallowed greedily, and he began:
"It was about five o'clock in the morning when I got up; and I certainly had no idea, when I left my room ..."
Marthe was stupefied. Why did Philippe say that he had slept there? Did he not know that his absence had been discovered? But then why tell that lie?
She instinctively placed herself in front of Suzanne and in front of her mother; and, as Philippe had broken off, himself embarrassed by the obvious commotion which he had caused, she asked him:
"So, last evening, you left your father and M. Jorancé?..."
"At the Carrefour du Grand-Chêne."
"Yes, so Suzanne told us. And you came back straight?"
"Straight."
"But you heard the shots fired?..."