"
"Does Mon. Andermatt know it?"
"He has not seen them, but Alfred Varin has told him of their
existence and threatened to publish them if my husband should take
any steps against him. My husband was afraid....of a scandal."
"But he has tried to recover the letters?"
"I think so; but I do not know. You see, after that last interview
with Alfred Varin, and after some harsh words between me and my
husband in which he called me to account--we live as strangers."
"In that case, as you have nothing to lose, what do you fear?"
"I may be indifferent to him now, but I am the woman that he has
loved, the one he would still love--oh! I am quite sure of that,"
she murmured, in a fervent voice, "he would still love me if he had
not got hold of those cursed letters----"
"What! Did he succeed?....But the two brothers still defied
him?"
"Yes, and they boasted of having a secure hiding-place."
"Well?"
"I believe my husband discovered that hiding-place."
"Well?"
"I believe my husband has discovered that hiding-place."
"Ah! where was it?"
"Here."
"Here!" I cried in alarm.
"Yes. I always had that suspicion. Louis Lacombe was very
ingenious and amused himself in his leisure hours, by making safes
and locks.
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