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Updated: May 19, 2025
Frederic Astaing.... My sister, Germaine Astaing, knows Madame d'Ormeval intimately!... They were expecting us.... We had an appointment!..." They were allowed to pass. Renine, who had slipped behind them, followed them in without a word, accompanied by Hortense. The d'Ormevals had four bedrooms and a sitting-room on the second floor.
"You lie!" cried Madame Astaing. Therese did not raise her voice. She made not a movement of aversion or indignation and simply repeated: "My death, Germaine.
At the mention of her children, Madame d'Ormeval broke down and sobbed. Germaine Astaing shrugged her shoulders and made a movement towards the door. Renine once more blocked the way: "Where are you going?" "I have been summoned by the examining-magistrate." "No, you have not." "Yes, I have. Just as all those have been who have any evidence to give." "You were not on the spot.
Renine and Hortense gazed at the pair of them: and Hortense whispered: "And she's supposed to have killed him for that? Impossible!" "Nevertheless," observed Renine, "they are acquaintances; and we know that Astaing and his sister were also acquainted with a third person who was their accomplice. So that...." "It's impossible!" Hortense repeated.
And, in spite of all presumption, she felt so much attracted by Therese that, when Frederic Astaing stood up, she proceeded straightway to sit down beside her and consoled her in a gentle voice. The unhappy woman's tears distressed her profoundly.
Word was sent up to the persons whose evidence might be of any service that they were to go to the beach, where the magistrate was beginning a preliminary investigation. He would call on Madame d'Ormeval afterwards. Accordingly, all who were present left the chalet. No one remained behind except the two guards and Germaine Astaing.
He took the bag, opened it, produced a little dagger with an ebony handle and a grey leather pocket-book and quietly slipped the two into the inside pocket of his jacket. Germaine Astaing gazed at him in amazement: "You're mad, monsieur! What right have you ...?" "These things must not be left lying about. I sha'n't worry now. The magistrate will never look for them in my pocket."
You hear what I say, Germaine: you're a wretch!" Therese d'Ormeval was repeating the insult as though it afforded her some relief. Her anger was abating. Very likely also she no longer had the strength to keep up the struggle; and it was Madame Astaing who returned to the attack, with her fists clenched and her face distorted and suddenly aged by fully twenty years: "You!
Renine, on the other hand, applied himself from the outset to watching the brother and sister, as though this were the only thing that mattered, and did not take his eyes off Frederic Astaing, who, with an air of indifference, began to make a minute inspection of the premises, examining the sitting-room, going into all the bedrooms, mingling with the various groups of persons present and asking questions about the manner in which the murder had been committed.
Germaine Astaing did not flinch. She had listened without a word, with a relentless expression which grew harder and harder as Therese's confessions became precise. No emotion seemed to soften her and no remorse to penetrate her being. At most, towards the end, her thin lips shaped themselves into a faint smile. She was holding her prey in her clutches.
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