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Undoubtedly you think that, pushed by my distress, and seeing that I shall be lost forever, I shall decide to accept this marriage to save myself." "Can you suppose such a thing, my dear sir?" Caffie cried. But Saniel stopped him.... "The calculation is too natural for you not to have made it. Well, I must tell you that it is false. Never will I lend myself to such a bargain.

It was that only, and nothing but that, which he could admit; consequently, he should interest himself in the police investigations, and have the curiosity to learn how they stood. "Have you advanced far in the Caffie affair?" he asked the agent as they walked along. "I do not know," the agent answered, who thought it prudent to be reserved. "I know nothing more than the newspapers tell."

He waited several minutes, and in his nervous impatience walked restlessly up and down the court. At last an old woman appeared carrying a small wax taper. She was feeble and bent, and began to excuse herself; she was alone and could not be everywhere at the same time, in her lodge and lighting the lamps on the stairways. Caffie lived on the first floor, in the wing on the street.

But on awakening, he was surprised to find that this resolution of the evening was not that of the morning, and that this dual personality, which had already struck him, asserted itself anew. It was at night that he resolved to kill Caffie, and he committed the deed in the evening.

In itself the death of Caffie was a small thing; it became atrocious if it led to such an ending. He did not wish this to happen, and he would do everything not only to prevent the condemnation, but to shorten the imprisonment.

It was hardly possible that with such a system Caffie had ever taken the trouble to enter the number of the bills that had passed through his hands; in any case, if he did, it was not in this note-book. Would another one be found? "My report is finished," he said. "Here it is."

When he reached this conclusion he stopped, and asked himself whether he were mad to pursue this idea; then immediately, to get rid of it, he set to work, which absorbed him for a certain time, but not so long a time as at first. Then, finding that he could not control his will, he turned his thoughts to Caffie.

And then, to prove that there was no struggle; Doctor Saniel will say that Caffie was surprised. Who could surprise Caffie? To open Caffies door when the clerk was away, it was necessary to ring first, and then to knock three times in a peculiar way. No stranger could know that, and who could know it better than I?"

It was an old house where Caffie lived, and had been formerly a private hotel; it was composed of two wings, one on the street, the other on an inside court. A porte cochere gave access to this court, and under its roof, near the staircase, was the concierge's lodge. Saniel knocked at the door in vain; it was locked and would not open.

And since you have seen him, you admit that he might be capable of the fault that he committed, without being capable-of becoming an assassin." He was about to reply, but she closed his lips with a quick gesture. "You will see why I speak of this, and you will understand why I do not drop the subject of Caffie, and of this button, on which the police count to find the criminal.