“And no talk about the matter; it will all be kept quiet, in short, and forgotten?”
“Just so.”
Captain Belval began to walk up and down, as was his habit. He now remembered Essarès’ prophecy:
“I sha’n’t be arrested. . . . If I am, I shall be let go. . . . The matter will be hushed up. . . .”
Essarès was right. The hand of justice was arrested; and there was no way for Coralie to escape silent complicity.
Patrice was intensely annoyed by the manner in which the case was being handled. It was certain that a compact had been concluded between Coralie and M. Masseron. He suspected the magistrate of circumventing Coralie and inducing her to sacrifice her own interests to other considerations. To effect this, the first thing was to get rid of him, Patrice.
“Ugh!” said Patrice to himself. “I’m fairly sick of this sportsman, with his cool ironical ways. It looks as if he were doing a considerable piece of thimblerigging at my expense.”
He restrained himself, however, and, with a pretense of wanting to keep on good terms with the magistrate, came and sat down beside him:
“You must forgive me, sir,” he said, “for insisting in what may appear to you an indiscreet fashion. But my conduct is explained not only by such sympathy or feeling as I entertain for Mme. Essarès at a moment in her life when she is more lonely than ever, a sympathy and feeling which she seems to repulse even more firmly than she did before. It is also explained by certain mysterious links which unite us to each other and which go back to a period too remote for our eyes to focus. Has Mme. Essarès told you those details? In my opinion, they are most important; and I cannot help associating them with the events that interest us.”
M. Masseron glanced at Coralie, who nodded. He answered: