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Updated: June 12, 2025
"I will say good-bye, Mademoiselle Bobinette.... I must hurry away!... You will excuse me?" De Loubersac leaped on to the platform, jostling the passengers crowding his path. He must reach the platform exit without a second's delay!... As he handed his ticket to the collecter, a hubbub arose. Passengers were stopping, turning back, running something sensational must have happened! He paused.
"I shall fine you five hundred francs! How dare you accost me like this? Are you mad?" De Loubersac's voice shook with rage. Lieutenant de Loubersac had just quitted the Second Bureau after an unusually hard day's work. Fatigued by the over-heated offices, he was enjoying the fresh air and exercise in spite of the chilling mist overhanging Paris.
Juve now asked himself if he had not come across this Wilhelmine in the past, this girl with pale gold hair, and clear deep eyes; if he had not, in the long ago, met under painful circumstances a little child who was now this pretty girl, beloved of Henri de Loubersac. Juve did not dwell on these vague, floating impressions. He turned his attention to more definite points.
"Less the fine," put in Juve-Vagualame with a comical grimace. De Loubersac smiled. "We will speak of that again." There was a pause. "A good deal has happened since the death of Captain Brocq's mistress." Juve-Vagualame remarked. "Is Captain Brocq's mistress dead, too?... Poor girl!" De Loubersac stared hard at the accordion player. "Oh come now, Vagualame! Where are your wits wool-gathering?"
The further he proceeded in his present investigations the clearer grew the connection between the Brocq affair and those of Bobinette, Wilhelmine, de Loubersac: surely they were all interpreters of the tragic drama conceived by Vagualame-Fantômas! "His leave expired this morning," continued de Loubersac. "He left yesterday evening. I have proof of it," asserted Juve-Vagualame. "Anything new?"
De Loubersac turned towards Mademoiselle Berthe with a questioning look a gesture of interrogation. Wilhelmine replied to it: "As a rule I go to the cemetery alone. You see me with my companion to-day because my father wished it. Since the sad affair which has thrown a shadow over our life, he is in a constant state of anxiety about my safety: he does not wish me to go about unaccompanied.
Assuredly, that handsome fellow, that dashing soldier, Henri de Loubersac, knew nothing of this same Vagualame's relations with Bobinette, nor his attitude towards that mysterious accomplice of his whom he had just assassinated, or pretended to have assassinated, Captain Brocq.
"Make off with you!" cried Bobinette. "There they are coming back!" Juve did not wish de Loubersac to catch a glimpse of him: he would be surprised, suspicious, and would question him about the missed rendezvous. Juve had not gained sufficient information, however. "I must see you again, Bobinette." His tone was pressing, insistent. "When?" "This evening." "Impossible." "To-morrow, then."
"Tell me, has anything new come to light in that affair?" Henri de Loubersac moved away, and looked the old accordion player up and down. "Do not meddle with what does not concern you." "Good! Good! That's all right!" The old fellow pretended to be confused, nevertheless a gleam of joy shone beneath his eyelids. There was a moment's silence. Henri de Loubersac was gnawing his moustache.
De Loubersac did not speak: mechanically he fitted his step to Wilhelmine's. Presently he asked: "Where do you think of going?" "I was going to do a little shopping ... nothing much ... there is no sort of hurry!" She felt that Henri wished to discuss something important with her: hers was too direct a nature to put him off with flimsy excuses when he desired a serious talk.
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