“To begin with, I may presume that you took those papers.”
“Stole them,” said Mrs. Merton.
“Oh, madame! Why did you not take them at once to Mr. Dayton?”
“I was too scared. I was alarmed when I saw the emperor’s handwriting. Was he cross?”
“Oh, I had later a bad quarter of an hour.”
“I am sorry. And now you are quite free to tell me next—that I—well, fibbed to you. I did. But lying is not forbidden in the decalogue.”
“What about false witness?” cried the countess, amused.
“That hardly covers the ground, but,” said Mrs. Merton, “I do not defend myself.”
The count laughed. “You did it admirably, and for a half-day I was in doubt. In fact, to confess, I was in such distress that I did not know what to do. The résumé I was to make for the emperor ought to have been made at the Foreign Office. I was rash enough to take the papers home.”
“But why did you not arrest me at once?”