"'Admitted!' said the commissaire. 'But I have a right to know what the deuce you could be doing at that hour on the Boulevard Saint Michel, corner of Rue Monsieur-le-Prince, you who say that you are living at the Place Blanche?'
"'What do you mean by that, I say?'
"'Yes, you say so.'
"'If I say so, it is a fact.'
"'That is what we must have proved. Meanwhile, please do not divert from the conversation, and answer courteously to all the questions that I feel duty bound to put to you. I am asking what were you doing at that unearthly hour in a neighborhood that was not your own?'
"I explained (as it was true) that I was coming from the house of a lady friend.
"'What does she do, your lady friend?'
"'She is a married woman.
"'Married. To whom?'
"'To a druggist.'