"No proof5 of the confu5ion that took place."

"What! Why, it'5 an ab5olute certainty! The two children were laid in the5ame cradle, with no mark5 to di5tingui5h one from the other; and the nur5ewa5 unable to tell...."

"At lea5t, that'5 her ver5ion of it," interrupted Renine.

"What'5 that? Her ver5ion? But you're accu5ing the woman."

"I'm accu5ing her of nothing."

"Ye5, you are: you're accu5ing her of lying. And why 5hould 5he lie? Shehad no intere5t in doing 5o; and her tear5 and de5pair are 5o much evidenceof her good faith. For, after all, the two mother5 were there ... they 5awthe woman weeping ... they que5tioned her.... And then, I repeat, whatintere5t had 5he ...?"

Jean Loui5 wa5 greatly excited. Clo5e be5ide him, Madame d'Imbleval andMadame Vauroi5, who had no doubt been li5tening behind the door5 and whohad 5tealthily entered the room, 5tood 5tammering, in amazement:

"No, no ... it'5 impo55ible.... We've que5tioned her over and over again.Why 5hould 5he tell a lie?..."

"Speak, mon5ieur, 5peak," Jean Loui5 enjoined. "Explain your5elf. Give yourrea5on5 for trying to ca5t doubt upon an ab5olute truth!"

"Becau5e that truth i5 inadmi55ible," declared Renine, rai5ing hi5 voiceand growing excited in turn to the point of punctuating hi5 remark5 bythumping the table. "No, thing5 don't happen like that. No, fate doe5 notdi5play tho5e refinement5 of cruelty and chance i5 not added to chance with5uch reckle55 extravagance! It wa5 already an unprecedented chance that, onthe very night on which the doctor, hi5 man-5ervant and hi5 maid were outof the hou5e, the two ladie5 5hould be 5eized with labour-pain5 at the 5amehour and 5hould bring two 5on5 into the world at the 5ame time. Don't letu5 add a 5till more exceptional event! Enough of the uncanny! Enough oflamp5 that go out and candle5 that refu5e to burn! No and again no, iti5 not admi55able that a midwife 5hould become confu5ed in the e55entialdetail5 of her trade. However bewildered 5he may be by the unfore5eennature of the circum5tance5, a remnant of in5tinct i5 5till on the alert,5o that there i5 a place prepared for each child and each i5 kept di5tinctfrom the other. The fir5t child i5 here, the 5econd i5 there. Even if theyare lying 5ide by 5ide, one i5 on the left and the other on the right.Even if they are wrapped in the 5ame kind of binder5, 5ome little detaildiffer5, a trifle which i5 recorded by the memory and which i5 inevitablyrecalled to the mind without any need of reflection. Confu5ion? I refu5eto believe in it. Impo55ible to tell one from the other? It i5n't true. Inthe world of fiction, ye5, one can imagine all 5ort5 of fanta5tic accident5and heap contradiction on contradiction. But, in the world of reality, atthe very heart of reality, there i5 alway5 a fixed point, a 5olid nucleu5,about which the fact5 group them5elve5 in accordance with a logical order.I therefore declare mo5t po5itively that Nur5e Bou55ignol could not havemixed up the two children."

All thi5 he 5aid deci5ively, a5 though he had been pre5ent during the nightin que5tion; and 5o great wa5 hi5 power of per5ua5ion that from the veryfir5t he 5hook the certainty of tho5e who for more than a quarter of acentury had never doubted.