"
"I know that you are very clever, Mademoiselle."
"Perhaps I ought to thank you for the compliment," she answered,
allowing anger to warm her voice at last; "but this is almost beyond a
joke. A woman comes to the rooms of a friend. Both of them are so placed
that they prefer her call not to be talked about. For that reason, and
for the woman's sake, the friend chooses to take a name that isn't
his--as he has a right to do. Yet, just because that woman happens
unfortunately to be well-known--her face and name being public
property--she is followed, she is spied upon, humiliated, and all, no
doubt, on account of some silly mistake, or malicious false information.
Ah, it is shameful, Monsieur! I wonder the police of Paris can stoop to
such stupidity, such meanness."
"When we have found out that it is a mistake, the police of Paris will
apologise to you, Mademoiselle, through me," said the Commissary; "until
then, I regret if our duty makes us disagreeable to you." Then, turning
to his two gendarmes, he directed them to search the room, beginning
with all possible places in which a paper parcel or large envelope might
be hidden, within ten metres of the spot where Mademoiselle and Monsieur
had stood talking together when the police opened the door.
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