"Then he's not a respectable man?"

"The man, to put it plainly, is a murderer."

"What do you mean?"

The count had risen from his chair. Hortense, greatly excited, said:

"Are you really sure that there has been a murder and that the murder was
done by some one belonging to the house?"

"Quite sure."

"But why are you so certain?"

"Because I know who the two victims were and what caused them to be
killed."

Prince Renine was making none but positive statements and his method
suggested the belief that he supported by the strongest proofs.

M. d'Aigleroche strode up and down the room, with his hands behind his
back. He ended by saying:

"I always had an instinctive feeling that something had happened, but I
never tried to find out.... Now, as a matter of fact, twenty years ago,
a relation of mine, a distant cousin, used to live at the Domaine de
Halingre. I hoped, because of the name I bear, that this story, which,
as I say, I never knew but suspected, would remain hidden for ever."