“Ah, old witches!  I see clearly you do not believe in Jacques’s innocence.  Why else should his family be so very anxious to see him?  No doubt they want to enable him to escape by suicide the punishment of his crime.  But, by the great God, that shall not be, if I can help it!”

M. Folgat was, as we have seen, excessively annoyed at this step taken by the Misses Lavarande; but he did not let it be seen.  It was very necessary that he at least should retain perfect presence of mind and calmness in this cruelly tried family.  M. de Chandore, on the other hand, could not conceal his dissatisfaction so well; and, in spite of his deference to his grandchild’s wishes, he said,—­

“I am sure, my dear child, I don’t wish to blame you.  But you know your aunts, and you know, also, how uncompromising they are.  They are quite capable of exasperating M. Galpin.”

“What does it matter?” asked the young girl haughtily.  “Circumspection is all very well for guilty people; but Jacques is innocent.”

“Miss Chandore is right,” said M. Folgat, who seemed to succumb to Dionysia like the rest of the family.  “Whatever the ladies may have done, they cannot make matters worse.  M. Galpin will be none the less our bitter enemy.”

Grandpapa Chandore started.  He said,—­

“But”—­

“Oh!  I do not blame him,” broke in the young lawyer; “but I blame the laws which make him act as he does.  How can a magistrate remain perfectly impartial in certain very important cases, like this one, when his whole future career depends upon his success?  A man may be a most upright magistrate, incapable of unfairness, and conscientious in fulfilling all his duties, and yet he is but a man.  He has his interest at stake.  He does not like the court to find that that there is no case.  The great rewards are not always given to the lawyer who has taken most pains to find out the truth.”

“But M. Galpin was a friend of ours, sir.”

“Yes; and that is what makes me fear.  What will be his fate on the day when M. Jacques’s innocence is established?”

They were just coming home, quite proud of their achievement, and waving in triumph the copy of Jacques’s letter.  Dionysia seized upon it; and, while she read it aside, Miss Adelaide described the interview, stating how haughty and disdainful she had been, and how humble and repentant M. Galpin had seemed to be.

“He was completely undone,” said the two old ladies with one voice:  “he was crushed, annihilated.”

“Yes, you have done a nice thing,” growled the old baron; “and you have much reason to boast, forsooth.”

“My aunts have done well,” declared Dionysia.  “Just see what Jacques has written!  It is clear and precise.  What can we fear when he says, ’Be reassured:  when the time comes, I shall be able to set matters right’?”

M. Folgat took the letter, read it, and shook his head.  Then he said,—­