“Certainly I did! The assassination of your brother was premeditated. If the criminals have had accomplices at the Dépôt, and such there certainly were, they have been introduced little by little... The fact of your brother’s murder is fresh in the memory of the police, therefore a special watch is kept over you. I ascertained that it would be so, and Fuselier himself assured me of it: there is a warder specially told to keep a close guard over you, a safe man, known to be beyond suspicion... No, Elizabeth, do believe me, if I was the cause of your horrified surprise the other day, and then of your imprisonment, I wished to be sure that you were as safe as it was possible to be; then, freed from such intense anxiety, I felt I should be at liberty to continue my investigations... Do say you forgive me!” All Elizabeth could say was:

“But why could you not have warned me?... I still can’t quite see...”

“Why, because, I only thought of the plan at the last moment! Also, because I feared you might not be able to act surprised naturally enough!... It was absolutely – yes, absolutely necessary – that everyone should take your arrest seriously... Surely, Elizabeth you can understand that!” He repeated his plea.

“Do, do say you forgive me, Elizabeth!”

The smile returned to Elizabeth’s lips: she was much moved.“Indeed I do... You are always my very good friend: you think of everything, and you watch over me as if...” Shy, blushing hotly, she stopped short, then changed the conversation.

“Do tell me if you have heard anything fresh!” Fandor returned to his normal self also. He had sworn to himself that he would not tell Elizabeth he loved her, until he had succeeded in unravelling the tangled web of the terrible Dollon affair.

I shall speak when she is once more at peace and free, when she is out of danger. I do not want her to consent to love me just because I have devoted myself to her brother’s case. Elizabeth shall be my wife, please God; but only if I deserve her, if I can win her.

And so Jérôme Fandor told her the story of the notorious wicker trunk – but he did not mention Thomery’s death, nor did he speak of the horrible murder of Jules.

What was the use of scaring Elizabeth, of adding needlessly to her terrors? Instead, he thought it better to learn what he could from her.

“I have still not found that famous list!” he said.

“Oh, I beg your pardon!” cried Elizabeth. “I was so worried!... Just imagine – I found the list after all, and I thought I had lost it! It was in one of my little handbags. I had put it there to bring to you. Here it is: they were quite willing to let me keep it.”