At
least, they did not ask for a share of the booty as the price of
their silence!"
The magistrate shook his head as if this explanation scarcely
satisfied him. "There is something else, there is certainly
something else," he repeated. But the doors were still open, so
he closed them carefully, and then returned to the girl he was so
desirous of advising. "I wish to tell you," he said, "that you
have mistaken the motives which induced these gentlemen to ask for
your hand in marriage."
"Do you believe, then, that you have fathomed them?"
"I could almost swear that I had. Didn't you remark a great
difference in their manner? Didn't one of them, the marquis,
behave with all the calmness and composure which are the result of
reflection and calculation? The other, on the contrary, acted most
precipitately, as if he had suddenly come to a determination, and
formed a plan on the impulse of the moment."
Mademoiselle Marguerite reflected.
"That's true," she said, "that's indeed true. Now I recollect the
difference."
"And this is my explanation of it," resumed the magistrate. "'The
Marquis de Valorsay,' I said to myself, 'must have proofs in his
possession that Mademoiselle Marguerite is the count's daughter--
written and conclusive proofs, that is certain--probably a
voluntary admission of the fact from the father. Who can prove
that M. de Valorsay does not possess this acknowledgment? In fact,
he must possess it.
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