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‘Jean-Marie is a teller of the truth,’ returned the Doctor, throwing out his bust.

‘He has never told a lie,’ added madame. ‘He is the best of boys.’

‘Never told a lie, has he not?’ reflected Casimir. ‘Strange, very strange. Give me your attention, my young friend,’ he continued. ‘You knew about this treasure?’

‘He helped to bring it home,’ interposed the Doctor.

‘Desprez, I ask you nothing but to hold your tongue,’ returned Casimir. ‘I mean to question this stable-boy of yours; and if you are so certain of his innocence, you can afford to let him answer for himself. Now, sir,’ he resumed, pointing his eyeglass straight at Jean-Marie. ‘You knew it could be stolen with impunity? You knew you could not be prosecuted? Come! Did you, or did you not?’

‘I did,’ answered Jean-Marie, in a miserable whisper. He sat there changing colour like a revolving pharos, twisting his fingers hysterically, swallowing air, the picture of guilt.

‘You knew where it was put?’ resumed the inquisitor.

‘Yes,’ from Jean-Marie.

‘You say you have been a thief before,’ continued Casimir. ‘Now how am I to know that you are not one still? I suppose you could climb the green gate?’

‘Yes,’ still lower, from the culprit.

‘Well, then, it was you who stole these things. You know it, and you dare not deny it. Look me in the face! Raise your sneak’s eyes, and answer!’

But in place of anything of that sort Jean-Marie broke into a dismal howl and fled from the arbour. Anastasie, as she pursued to capture and reassure the victim, found time to send one Parthian arrow–‘Casimir, you are a brute!’

‘My brother,’ said Desprez, with the greatest dignity, ‘you take upon yourself a licence–‘

‘Desprez,’ interrupted Casimir, ‘for Heaven’s sake be a man of the world. You telegraph me to leave my business and come down here on yours. I come, I ask the business, you say “Find me this thief!” Well, I find him; I say “There he is!” You need not like it, but you have no manner of right to take offence.’

‘Well,’ returned the Doctor, ‘I grant that; I will even thank you for your mistaken zeal. But your hypothesis was so extravagantly monstrous–‘

‘Look here,’ interrupted Casimir; ‘was it you or Stasie?’

‘Certainly not,’ answered the Doctor.

‘Very well; then it was the boy. Say no more about it,’ said the brother- in-law, and he produced his cigar-case.

‘I will say this much more,’ returned Desprez: ‘if that boy came and told me so himself, I should not believe him; and if I did believe him, so implicit is my trust, I should conclude that he had acted for the best.’

‘Well, well,’ said Casimir, indulgently. ‘Have you a light? I must be going. And by the way, I wish you would let me sell your Turks for you. I always told you, it meant smash. I tell you so again. Indeed, it was partly that that brought me down. You never acknowledge my letters–a most unpardonable habit.’

‘My good brother,’ replied the Doctor blandly, ‘I have never denied your ability in business; but I can perceive your limitations.’

‘Egad, my friend, I can return the compliment,’ observed the man of business. ‘Your limitation is to be downright irrational.’

‘Observe the relative position,’ returned the Doctor with a smile. ‘It is your attitude to believe through thick and thin in one man’s judgment–your own. I follow the same opinion, but critically and with open eyes. Which is the more irrational?–I leave it to yourself.’

‘O, my dear fellow!’ cried Casimir, ‘stick to your Turks, stick to your stable-boy, go to the devil in general in your own way and be done with it. But don’t ratiocinate with me–I cannot bear it. And so, ta-ta. I might as well have stayed away for any good I’ve done. Say good-bye from me to Stasie, and to the sullen hang-dog of a stable-boy, if you insist on it; I’m off.’

And Casimir departed. The Doctor, that night, dissected his character before Anastasie. ‘One thing, my beautiful,’ he said, ‘he has learned one thing from his lifelong acquaintance with your husband: the word ratiocinate. It shines in his vocabulary, like a jewel in a muck-heap. And, even so, he continually misapplies it. For you must have observed he uses it as a sort of taunt, in the sense of to ergotise, implying, as it were–the poor, dear fellow!–a vein of sophistry. As for his cruelty to Jean-Marie, it must be forgiven him–it is not his nature, it is the nature of his life. A man who deals with money, my dear, is a man lost.’