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"May I inquire, madame, why you regard Mlle. Madeleine's becoming the Marchioness of Clameran as a disgrace and a sacrifice?" "My niece chose, of her own free will, a husband whom she will shortly marry. She loves M. Prosper Bertomy." The marquis disdainfully shrugged his shoulders. "A school-girl love-affair," said he; "she will forget all about it, if you wish her to do so." "I do not wish it.
Vainly did he puzzle over the letter, hoping to discover some hidden meaning; twist the words as he would, they proved nothing for or against the writer. The two words "absolutely everything" were underscored, it is true; but they could be interpreted in so many ways. The detective, however, determined not to drop the matter here. "This Mme. Nina Gypsy is doubtless a friend of M. Prosper Bertomy?"
Realising that he was hopelessly in the toils, the count was bereft of his senses and become a hopeless maniac. Four days later M. Lecoq, the official M. Lecoq, awaited the arrival of Nina Gipsy and Prosper Bertomy. They declared that they had come to meet M. Verduret, who had saved Prosper Bertomy. The detective retired, promising to summon the man they had come to see.
Both of them had keys; both of them knew the secret word and could have robbed the safe whenever they pleased. Therefore, neither of them would have committed the theft in the presence of somebody else. II. A Mysterious Journey Lecoq's first steps after establishing these preliminary deductions was to secure the release of Bertomy on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
After a painful silence, Prosper said: "You overwhelm me, father, and at the moment when I need all my courage; when I am the victim of an odious plot." "Victim!" cried M. Bertomy, "victim! Dare you utter your insinuations against the honorable man who has taken care of you, loaded you with benefits, and had insured you a brilliant future!
"Don't distress yourself, M. Bertomy," he said: "perhaps the chief disposed of the money." The unhappy cashier started up with a look of relief; he eagerly caught at the idea. "Yes!" he exclaimed, "you are right: the chief must have taken it." But, after thinking a few minutes, he said in a tone of deep discouragement: "No, that is impossible.
Before a week had gone by, he was a favorite with M. Fauvel, intimate with Abel and Lucien, and inseparable from Prosper Bertomy, the cashier, who spent all his evenings with the banker's family. Charmed at the favorable impression made by Raoul, Mme.
Louis de Clameran relied upon making his rival, Prosper Bertomy, furnish him this ardently desired opportunity. He loved Madeleine too passionately to feel aught save the bitterest hate toward the man whom she had freely chosen, and who still possessed her heart. Clameran knew that he could marry her at once if he chose; but in what way?
Though the case looked black against Bertomy, for it was shown that he was heavily in debt, and living far beyond his means, Lecoq was satisfied that he had not committed the crime. When Fanferlot, hopelessly befogged, called for his advice at his house in the Rue Montmartre, the great detective deigned to explain the preliminary data and the deductions from the data he had made.
M. Bertomy stopped short, frightened at the expression of his son's face. His features were contracted with such furious rage that he was scarcely recognizable, and his eyes glared like a maniac's. "You dare not disgrace me thus!" he cried; "you have no right to do it.
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