“Monsieur must not think me unappreciative.”

“Ah, mademoiselle!” he protested sadly—­“but you forget so easily.”

“That we have met before, when I term you a complete stranger?”

“Well... yes.”

“It is because I would not be in monsieur’s debt!”

“Pardon?”

“I will repay sympathy with sympathy.  I have already forgotten that I ever visited the Chateau de Montalais.  So how should I remember I met monsieur there under the name of... but I forget.”

“The name of Duchemin?”

“I never knew there was such a name—­I swear!—­before I saw it in type to-day.”

“In type?”

“Monsieur does not read the papers?”

“Not all of them, mademoiselle.”

“It appeared in Le Matin to-day, this quaint name Duchemin, in a despatch from Millau stating that a person of that name, a guest of the Chateau de Montalais, had disappeared without taking formal leave of his hosts.”

“One gathers that he took something else?”

“Nothing less than the world-known Anstruther collection of jewels, the property of Madame de Montalais nee Anstruther.”

“But I am recently from the Chateau de Montalais, and in a position to assure mademoiselle that this poor fellow, Duchemin, is unjustly accused.”

“Oh, ho, ho!”

He heard again that laugh of broad derision which had seemed so out of character with a great lady when he had heard it first, that night now nearly a month old.

“Mademoiselle does not believe?”

“I think monsieur must be a good friend to this Monsieur Duchemin.”

“I confess I entertain a sneaking fondness for his memory.”

“You can hardly call yourself an impartial judge—­”

“It is nevertheless true he did not steal the jewels.”

“Then tell me who did take them.”

“Unfortunately for Duchemin, that remains a mystery.”

“Rather, I should say, fortunately for him.”

“You would wrong him, then.”

“But why, if innocent, did he run away?”

“I imagine, because he knew he would surely be accused, in which case ancient history would be revived to prove him guilty beyond a question in the mind of any sane court.”

“Does one understand he had a history?”

“I have heard it intimated such was the case.”

“But I remain in the dark.  The theft presumably was not discovered till after his disappearance.  Yet, according to your contention, he must have known of it in advance.  How do you account for that?”

“Mademoiselle would make a famous juge d’instruction.”

“That does not answer my argument.”

“How is one to answer it?  Who knows how Duchemin discovered the theft before the ladies of the chateau did?”

“Do you know what you make me think?  That he was not as innocent as you assert.”

“Mademoiselle will explain?”