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Updated: June 12, 2025
"Should we walk on a little, talking as we go?" she suggested, with a charming smile. To walk and talk with Henri was such a pleasure! De Loubersac agreed. The young couple crossed the Esplanade des Invalides, and by way of the rue Saint-Dominique, the boulevard Saint-Germain, and rue Buonaparte, reached the Luxembourg Gardens. Here they could talk at ease.
Twice he cried, in an irritated voice: "What is the matter with you? I cannot understand what you say. I can hardly hear you." "I have a severe cold on the chest, lieutenant." Certainly Vagualame's voice was remarkably hoarse. "If the Government does not give me something regular to live on, I shall die in hospital." De Loubersac looked about him anxiously.
After a moment's reflection he added: "But of course, you must know more about it than anyone, Vagualame, because you saw her just before the end. Didn't you have a talk with Nichoune on the Friday, the eve of her death?" Juve-Vagualame was about to speak. De Loubersac added: "The innkeeper saw you!" "Did he now? What is this?" thought Juve. This statement opened up a fresh view of things.
"Well, then?" De Loubersac was staring at Vagualame with puzzled eyes. "Well, then as to that no!... I had better hold my tongue." "Speak out!" commanded de Loubersac. "No," growled Juve-Vagualame. "I order you to do so." "Well, then," conceded Juve-Vagualame, "since you must know what I think, I consider Nichoune was in no sense the mistress of Captain Brocq."
As the two men strolled they exchanged information. De Loubersac told Juve that, according to the latest messages from the Second Bureau, Vinson had left Paris with a priest, in a hired motor-car, and had taken the road to Rouen, that in all probability they would reach Dieppe before nightfall, and when they arrived!... "It is precisely at that moment we shall arrest them.
"That is enough!... I am going to take you to Rouen!... You can account for yourself to the magistrates!" Juve and Henri de Loubersac passed the night on the quay. Daybreak found them marching side by side, keeping their weary watch and ward. De Loubersac had fallen silent; monosyllabic replies to Juve's remarks had given place to no remarks at all. Juve looked at Henri and smiled.
Henri de Loubersac had a clear conviction that during his conversation with her who might have been his fiancée in days to come, they had been shadowed, spied upon! There were strange happenings elsewhere on the day Henri de Loubersac and Wilhelmine de Naarboveck had parted in grief and anger. It was on the stroke of noon when Corporal Vinson heard a key turn in the lock of his cell.
Wilhelmine's statements were impressing de Loubersac less and less favourably. "Play acting and clumsy play acting at that!" decided Henri: "Done to avert my suspicions, imagined to feed my curiosity!... She thinks herself a capable player at the game! She does not know the person she is playing with!" De Loubersac came to a decision.
Juve shot his answer at the lieutenant, like a stone from a catapult. "Wilhelmine de Naarboveck!" A shout of indignant protest burst from de Loubersac. He could not contain his fury: he kicked the supposed Vagualame with such force that he sent him rolling in the greasy mud of the Seine bank. "Beast!" growled Juve, as he picked himself up.
The prince was stationed in the centre of the inmost drawing-room, gorgeously arrayed in his national costume, a delicate smile on his lips as he watched the President's guests with bright shrewd eyes, while music from an invisible Hungarian band floated on the air. In this particular room two men were in earnest conversation: Colonel Hofferman and Lieutenant de Loubersac.
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