*

The inquiry which he had to make related to events that were certainly
quite as strange as those which he had just witnessed; and while the
part played by Gaston Sauverand in the pursuit of the Mornington
inheritance deserved all his attention, the behaviour of Mile. Levasseur
puzzled him no less.

He could not forget the cry of terror that escaped the girl while he was
telephoning to Mazeroux, nor the scared expression of her face. Now it
was impossible to attribute that cry and that expression to anything
other than the words which he had uttered in reply to Mazeroux:

"What! Mme. Fauville tried to commit suicide!"

The fact was certain; and the connection between the announcement of the
attempt and Mlle. Levasseur's extreme emotion was too obvious for Perenna
not to try to draw conclusions.

He went straight to his study and at once examined the arch leading to
the telephone box. This arch, which was about six feet wide and very low,
had no door, but merely a velvet hanging, which was nearly always drawn
up, leaving the arch uncovered. Under the hanging, among the moldings of
the cornice, was a button that had only to be pressed to bring down the
iron curtain against which he had thrown himself two hours before.

He worked the catch two or three times over, and his experiments
proved to him in the most explicit fashion that the mechanism was in
perfect order and unable to act without outside intervention. Was he
then to conclude that the girl had wanted to kill him? But what could
be her motive?

He was on the point of ringing and sending for her, so as to receive the
explanation which he was resolved to demand from her. However, the
minutes passed and he did not ring. He saw her through the window as she
walked slowly across the yard, her body swinging gracefully from her
hips. A ray of sunshine lit up the gold of her hair.

All the rest of the morning he lay on a sofa, smoking cigars. He was ill
at ease, dissatisfied with himself and with the course of events, not one
of which brought him the least glimmer of truth; in fact, all of them
seemed to deepen the darkness in which he was battling. Eager to act, the
moment he did so he encountered fresh obstacles that paralyzed his powers
of action and left him in utter ignorance of the nature of his
adversaries.

But, at twelve o'clock, just as he had rung for lunch, his butler entered
the study with a tray in his hand, and exclaimed, with an agitation which