In this room were----" He paused in his dictation, and
addressing the clerk, "Take down the names of all present," said
he. "That will require some little time, and, meanwhile, I will
continue my search."
They had, in fact, only examined the shelf of the escritoire, and
the drawers were still to be inspected. In the first which he
opened, the magistrate found ample proofs of the accuracy of the
information which had been furnished him by Mademoiselle
Marguerite. The drawer contained a memorandum which established
the fact that the Credit Foncier had lent M. de Chalusse the sum
of eight hundred and fifty thousand francs, which had been
remitted to him on the Saturday preceding his death. Beside this
document lay a second memorandum, signed by a stockbroker named
Pell, setting forth that the latter had sold for the count
securities of various descriptions to the amount of fourteen
hundred and twenty-three thousand francs, which sum had been paid
to the count on the preceding Tuesday, partly in bank-notes and
partly in gold. It was thus evident that M. de Chalusse had
received a grand total of two million two hundred and seventy-
three thousand francs within the past six days.
In the drawer which was next opened, the magistrate only found a
number of deeds, bonds, leases, and mortgages; but they proved
that public rumor, far from exaggerating the figures of the
count's fortune, had diminished it, and this made it difficult to
explain why he had contracted a loan.
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