and his foreign
secretary to Lord John."

"Well," said Mrs. Merton, "I am still faintly penitent, but this is a
delightful inquisition. Pray go on. I shall be frank."

"To begin with, I may presume that you took those papers."

"Stole them," said Mrs. Merton.

"Oh, madame! Why did you not take them at once to Mr. Dayton?"

"I was too scared. I was alarmed when I saw the emperor's handwriting.
Was he cross?"

"Oh, I had later a bad quarter of an hour."

"I am sorry. And now you are quite free to tell me next--that I--well,
fibbed to you. I did. But lying is not forbidden in the decalogue."

"What about false witness?" cried the countess, amused.

"That hardly covers the ground, but," said Mrs. Merton, "I do not
defend myself."

The count laughed. "You did it admirably, and for a half-day I was in
doubt. In fact, to confess, I was in such distress that I did not know
what to do. The resume I was to make for the emperor ought to have
been made at the Foreign Office. I was rash enough to take the papers
home."

"But why did you not arrest me at once?"

"Will madame look in the glass for an answer? You were--well, a lady,
your people loyal, and I was frantic for a day. I hesitated until I
saw you driving toward the Bois de Boulogne in a storm. What followed
you know."

"Yes."

"You concealed the papers, and the police for a while thought you had
burned them. You were clever."

"Not very," said Mrs. Merton. "I tried to burn all the big double
envelops, but the men hurried me."

"I see," returned the count. "Your ruse, if it was that, deceived
them, delayed things, and then the papers somehow were removed. And
here my curiosity reaches a climax. It puzzled me for years, and, as I
know, has puzzled the police."

"But why?" asked I.

"The pistol-shots were, of course, believed to have been a means of
decoying away the guard. The old caretaker was found in her room and
the room locked. She was greatly alarmed at the cries and the shots,
and for a while would not open the door."

Mrs. Merton laughed. "Ah, my good old nurse."

"But the man in charge of the house never left it, or so he said, and
the doors, all of them, were locked."

"Indeed!" I exclaimed. "That dear old nurse."

"The police found no trace of what might have been present if a man
had entered--I mean muddy footmarks in the house."

"No," I said; "that was pure accident. I took off my shoes when I went
in, but with no thought of anythi