"I have that certificate, inspector."
"Made out by whom?"
"By the Prefecture of Châlons, which is the chief city of the department in which I was born."
"Show it to me."
The young girl plainly hesitated. She looked at Count Octave then at the Countess. She had begged them to come just in order that they might be witnesses of her examination and hear the answers she proposed to give, and now, at the last moment, she was rather sorry that she had done so.
"Would you prefer us to withdraw?" said the Countess.
"No, no," she replied quickly. "On the contrary I insist on your knowing."
"And us too?" said Raoul Davernoie.
"Yes," she said smiling. "There is a fact which it is my duty to divulge to you. Oh, nothing of great importance. But ... all the same."
She took from her case a dirty card with broken corners.