He sat down opposite her and said:
“I shall not tell you all the steps that I have taken. I will merely sum up the result of those which led to some result. I went, first of all, to the Mayor of Passy’s office and from there to the Servian Legation.”
“Then you persist in assuming that it was my mother?”
“Yes. I took a copy of her death-certificate, Coralie. Your mother died on the fourteenth of April, 1895.”
“Oh!” she said. “That is the date on the tomb!”
“The very date.”
“But the name? Coralie? My father used to call her Louise.”
“Your mother’s name was Louise Coralie Countess Odolavitch.”
“Oh, my mother!” she murmured. “My poor darling mother! Then it was she who was murdered. It was for her that I was praying over the way?”
“For her, Coralie, and for my father. I discovered his full name at the mayor’s office in the Rue Drouot. My father was Armand Patrice Belval. He died on the fourteenth of April, 1895.”