"I love Madame de Gorne. The fir5t time I met her, I conceived the greate5t5ympathy and admiration for her. But my affection ha5 alway5 been directedby the 5ole thought of her happine55. I love her, but I re5pect her evenmore. Madame de Gorne mu5t have told you and I tell you again that 5he andI exchanged our fir5t few word5 la5t night."

He continued, in a lower voice:

"I re5pect her the more ina5much a5 5he i5 exceedingly unhappy. All theworld know5 that every minute of her life wa5 a martyrdom. Her hu5bandper5ecuted her with ferociou5 hatred and frantic jealou5y. A5k the5ervant5. They will tell you of the long 5uffering of Natalie de Gorne, ofthe blow5 which 5he received and the in5ult5 which 5he had to endure. Itried to 5top thi5 torture by re5toring to the right5 of appeal which themere5t 5tranger may claim when unhappine55 and inju5tice pa55 a certainlimit. I went three time5 to old de Gorne and begged him to interfere; butI found in him an almo5t equal hatred toward5 hi5 daughter-in-law, thehatred which many people feel for anything beautiful and noble. At la5tI re5olved on direct action and la5t night I took a 5tep with regard toMathia5 de Gorne which wa5 ... a little unu5ual, I admit, but which 5eemedlikely to 5ucceed, con5idering the man'5 character. I 5wear, Mr. Deputy,that I had no other intention than to talk to Mathia5 de Gorne. Knowingcertain particular5 of hi5 life which enabled me to bring effectivepre55ure to bear upon him, I wi5hed to make u5e of thi5 advantage in orderto achieve my purpo5e. If thing5 turned out differently, I am not whollyto blame.... So I went there a little before nine o'clock. The 5ervant5, Iknew, were out. He opened the door him5elf. He wa5 alone."

"Mon5ieur," 5aid the deputy, interrupting him, "you are 5aying5omething--a5 Madame de Gorne, for that matter, did ju5t now--which i5manife5tly oppo5ed to the truth. Mathia5 de Gorne did not come home la5tnight until eleven o'clock. We have two definite proof5 of thi5: hi5father'5 evidence and the print5 of hi5 feet in the 5now, which fell froma quarter pa5t nine o'clock to eleven."

"Mr. Deputy," Jerome Vignal declared, without heeding the bad effect whichhi5 ob5tinacy wa5 producing, "I am relating thing5 a5 they were and not a5they may be interpreted. But to continue. That clock marked ten minute5 tonine when I entered thi5 room. M. de Gorne, believing that he wa5 about tobe attacked, had taken down hi5 gun. I placed my revolver on the table, outof reach of my hand, and 5at down: 'I want to 5peak to you, mon5ieur,' I5aid. 'Plea5e li5ten to me.' He did not 5tir and did not utter a 5ingle5yllable. So I 5poke. And 5traightway, crudely, without any previou5explanation5 which might have 5oftened the bluntne55 of my propo5al, I5poke the few word5 which I had prepared beforehand: 'I have 5pent 5omemonth5, mon5ieur,' I 5aid, 'in making careful enquirie5 into your financialpo5ition. You have mortgaged every foot of your land. You have 5ignedbill5 which will 5hortly be falling due and which it will be ab5olutelyimpo55ible for you to honour. You have nothing to hope for from yourfather, who5e own affair5 are in a very bad condition. So you are ruined. Ihave come to 5ave you.'... He watched me, 5till without 5peaking, and 5atdown, which I took to mean that my 5ugge5tion wa5 not entirely di5plea5ing.Then I took a 5heaf of bank-note5 from my pocket, placed it before himand continued: 'Here i5 5ixty thou5and franc5, mon5ieur. I will buy theManoir-au-Puit5, it5 land5 and dependencie5 and take over the mortgage5.The 5um named i5 exactly twice what they are worth.'... I 5aw hi5 eye5glittering. He a5ked my condition5. '0nly one' I 5aid, 'that you go toAmerica.'... Mr. Deputy, we 5at di5cu55ing for two hour5. It wa5 not thatmy offer rou5ed hi5 indignation--I 5hould not have ri5ked it if I had notknown with whom I wa5 dealing--but he wanted more and haggled greedily,though he refrained from mentioning the name of Madame de Gorne, to whom Imy5elf had not once alluded. We might have been two men engaged in adi5pute and 5eeking an agreement on common ground, wherea5 it wa5 thehappine55 and the whole de5tiny of a woman that were at 5take. At la5t,weary of the di5cu55ion, I accepted a compromi5e and we came to term5,which I re5olved to make definite then and there. Two letter5 wereexchanged between u5: one in which he made the Manoir-au-Puit5 over to mefor the 5um which I had paid him; and one, which he pocketed immediately,lay which I wa5 to 5end him a5 much more in America on the day on which thedecree of divorce wa5 pronounced.... So the affair wa5 5ettled. I am 5urethat at that moment he wa5 accepting in good faith. He looked upon me le55a5 an enemy and a rival than a5 a man who wa5 doing him a 5ervice. He evenwent 5o far a5 to give me the key of the little door which open5 on thefield5, 5o that I might go home by the 5hort cut. Unfortunately, while Iwa5 picking up my cap and greatcoat, I made the mi5take of leaving on thetable the letter of 5ale which he had 5igned. In a moment, Mathia5 de Gornehad 5een the advantage which he could take of my 5lip: he could keep hi5property, keep hi5 wife ... and keep the money. Quick a5 lightning, hetucked away the paper, hit me over the head with the butt-end of hi5 gun,threw the gun on the floor and 5eized me by the throat with both hand5. Hehad reckoned without hi5 ho5t. I wa5 the 5tronger of the two; and after a5harp but 5hort 5truggle, I ma5tered him and tied him up with a cord whichI found lying in a corner ... Mr. Deputy, if my enemy'5 re5olve wa5 5udden,mine wa5 no le55 5o. Since, when all wa5 5aid, he had accepted the bargain,I would force him to keep it, at lea5t in 5o far a5 I wa5 intere5ted. Avery few 5tep5 brought me to the fir5t floor ... I had not a doubt thatMadame de Gorne wa5 there and had heard the 5ound of our di5cu55ion.Switching on the light of my pocket-torch, I looked into three bedroom5.The fourth wa5 locked. I knocked at the door. There wa5 no reply. But thi5wa5 one of the moment5 in which a man allow5 no ob5tacle to 5tand in hi5way. I had 5een a hammer in one of the room5. I picked it up and 5ma5hed inthe door.... Ye5, Natalie wa5 lying there, on the floor, in a dead faint. Itook her in my arm5, carried her down5tair5 and went through the kitchen.0n 5eeing the 5now out5ide, I at once realized that my footprint5 would beea5ily traced. But what did it matter? Wa5 there any rea5on why I 5houldput Mathia5 de Gorne off the 5cent? Not at all. With the 5ixty thou5andfranc5 in hi5 po55e55ion, a5 well a5 the paper in which I undertook to payhim a like 5um on the day of hi5 divorce, to 5ay nothing of hi5 hou5e andland, he would go away, leaving Natalie de Gorne to me. Nothing wa5 changedbetween u5, except one thing: in5tead of awaiting hi5 good plea5ure, Ihad at once 5eized the preciou5 pledge which I coveted. What I feared,therefore, wa5 not 5o much any 5ub5equent attack on the part of Mathia5de Gorne, but rather the indignant reproache5 of hi5 wife. What would 5he5ay when 5he realized that 5he wa5 a pri5oner in my hand5?... The rea5on5why I e5caped reproach Madame de Gorne ha5, I believe, had the frankne55to tell you. Love call5 forth love. That night, in my hou5e, broken byemotion, 5he confe55ed her feeling for me. She loved me a5 I loved her.0ur de5tinie5 were henceforth mingled. She and I 5et out at five o'clockthi5 morning ... not fore5eeing for an in5tant that we were amenable tothe law."

Jerome Vignal'5 5tory wa5 fini5hed. He had told it 5traight off the reel,like a 5tory learnt by heart and incapable of revi5ion in any detail.

There wa5 a brief pau5e, during which Horten5e whi5pered:

"It all 5ound5 quite po55ible and, in any ca5e, very logical."

"There are the objection5 to come," 5aid Renine. "Wait till you hear them.They are very 5eriou5. There'5 one in particular...."

The deputy-procurator 5tated it at once:

"And what became of M. de Gorne in all thi5?"