"
Without saying a word, the count left the room; and, this time,
those present did not feel the nervous anxiety they had experienced
the first time. They were confident that Floriani was right, and
no one was surprised when the count returned and declared:
"It was the child. Everything proves it."
"You have seen the shelves and the poker?"
"Yes. The shelves have been unnailed, and the poker is there yet."
But the countess exclaimed:
"You had better say it was his mother. Henriette is the guilty
party. She must have compelled her son---"
"No," declared the chevalier, "the mother had nothing to do with
it."
"Nonsense! they occupied the same room. The child could not have
done it without the mother's knowledge."
"True, they lived in the same room, but all this happened in the
adjoining room, during the night, while the mother was asleep."
"And the necklace?" said the count. "It would have been found
amongst the child's things."
"Pardon me! He had been out. That morning, on which you found him
reading, he had just come from school, and perhaps the commissary
of police, instead of wasting his time on the innocent mother,
would have been better employed in searching the child's desk
amongst his school-books.
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