Although he had told Phillis repeatedly that an acquittal was certain, and that he had promised her he would do all he could for Florentin—­which he really did—­she did not give entirely into his hands, or into Nougarede’s, the task of defending her brother, but worked with them in his defence.

Nougarede believed that the delay in bringing the affair before the assizes was caused by the attempts to learn if, during his residence in America, Florentin had not worked in some large meat-shop or sheepfold, where he would have learned to use a butcher knife, which was the chief point for the accusation.  Phillis wrote to the various towns where Florentin had lived, and to tell the truth, he had worked at La Plata for six months as accountant in a large sheepfold, but never slaughtered the sheep.

When she received a letter, she carried it immediately to Saniel, and then to Nougarede; and, at the same time, on all sides, in Paris, among those who had held relations with her brother, she sought for testimony that should prove to the jury that he could not be the man that his accusers believed him.  It was thus that, all alone, without other means of action than those which she found in her sisterly tenderness and bravery, she organized an investigation parallel to that of the law, which, on the day of judgment, would carry a certain weight, it seemed, with the conviction of the jury, showing them what had been the true life of this irregular and debauched man, capable of anything to glut his appetite and satisfy his desires.

Each time that she obtained a favorable deposition, she ran to Saniel to tell him, and then together they repeated that a conviction was impossible.

“You are sure, are you not?”

“Have I not always told you so?”

He had also said that Florentin could not be arrested, basing the accusation on the torn button, and he had said that certainly an ‘ordonnance de non-lieu’ would be given by the judge; but they wished to remember neither the one nor the other.

Things had reached this state, when one Saturday evening Phillis arrived at Saniel’s, radiant.

As soon as the door opened she exclaimed: 

“He is saved!”

“An ordonnance de non-lieu?”

“No; but now it is of little importance.  We can go to the assizes.”

She breathed a sigh which showed how great were her fears, in spite of the confidence she expressed when she repeated that conviction was impossible.

He left his desk, and going toward her, took her in his arms, and made her sit down beside him on the divan.

“You will see that I do not let myself be carried away by an illusion, and that, as I tell you, he is saved, really saved.  You know that an illustrated paper has published his portrait?”

“I do not read illustrated papers.”