All through that interview he keeps on his gloves.
Joyce held out a hand to each of thetwo men.
Not a shred of a letter had beendiscovered amongst
her possessions.
Hanaud returned to the car, and a minutelater the
street was empty again. Already on that night she knew of thisroom! The examining
magistrate spoke with a mild interest in his voice. The morning found him still at
his labours.
It was within this room, then, that Evelyn Devenish
was murdered, saidMr.
Ricardo aneedless particularity, that it was
secured without the knowledge of thehousehold.
It was to this house that Evelyn Devenish had come
whenall the world was in bed.
Ricardo corrected, the habit of accuracyreasserting
its authority.
He slept as boys sleep after afootball match. It
was not indeed until the car had flashed through Pauillac thathe spoke again. The
Prefect of Bordeaux, the magistrate repeated. But to me, it seemed that he was
holding himself up by that bolt. We were on the terrace of Suvlac, you and
I.
I have yet to learn that a clinicand the Prefecture
are synonymous terms.
A moment afterwards Ricardo heard his footsteps
andthose of Moreau upon the pebbles of the drive. For I shall not know until
tomorrow the whole truth of thisaffair.
He lifts his left arm and plays with the
bolt.
Butthere had come a time when Evelyn Devenishs
passion grew exacting andeven dangerous. Amongst us three there is no needfor
concealments. Moreau in the passage stood to attention.
And what was it that you, Hanaud, discovered in
DianaTasboroughs room?
Ricardo exclaimed in bewilderment, and Hanaud
hastened to interrupt him.
Ricardo, that you alone exclaim when Isay
three.
Ricardorealized with a shock of repulsion that he
was gazing at a horrid parodyof an altar. From the days of Madame deMontespan and
the Abbe Guibourg, the Black Mass has had its congregation. And a greatcrucifix of
ebony with an ivory Christ stood upside down. One resents them more and more instead
ofceasing to notice them at all. He stretched out ahand as Hanaud produced a letter
from his pocket.