5. “Very true,” said Dupin, as he supplied his visitor with a pipe, and rolled towards him a comfortable chair.
6. “And what is the difficulty now?” I asked. “Nothing more in the assassination way, I hope?”
7. “Oh, no; nothing of that nature. The fact is, the business is very simple, indeed, and I make no doubt that we can manage it sufficiently well ourselves; but then I thought Dupin would like to hear the details of it, because it is so excessively odd.”
8. “Simple and odd,” said Dupin.
Poe makes G—— to serve as a foil for Dupin, while the narrator plays Watson to Dupin’s Sherlock—but Poe came first!
9. “Why, yes; and not exactly that, either. The fact is, we have all been a good deal puzzled because the affair is so simple, and yet baffles us altogether.”
Forecast of denouement. Note how this point is emphasized.
10. “Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the thing which puts you at fault,” said my friend.
11. “What nonsense you do talk!” replied the Prefect, laughing heartily.
12. “Perhaps the mystery is a little too plain,” said Dupin.