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world of Christian finance, exclaimed in a squeaky voice:
“Well, my dear Madame d’Esparvieu, so you have had trouble here. The papers speak darkly of robbery, of thefts committed in Monsieur d’Esparvieu’s valuable library, of stolen letters. . . .”
“Oh,” said Madame d’Esparvieu, “if we are to believe all the newspapers say . . .”
“Oh, so, dear Madame, you have got your treasures back. All’s well that ends well.”
“The library is in perfect order,” asserted Madame d’Esparvieu. “There is nothing missing.”
“The library is on the floor above this, is it not?” asked young Madame des Aubels, showing an unexpected interest in the books.
Madame d’Esparvieu replied that the library occupied the whole of the second floor, and that they had put the least valuable books in the attics.
“Could I not go and look at it?”
The mistress of the house declared that nothing could be easier. She called to her son:
“Maurice, go and do the honours of the library to Madame des Aubels.”
Maurice rose, and without uttering a word, mounted to the second floor in the wake of Madame des Aubels.
He appeared indifferent, but inwardly he rejoiced, for he had no doubt that Gilberte had feigned her ardent desire to inspect the library
