together."

"No, no!" she cried. "I can't allow that!... You are speaking of a cousin
of my uncle's? Why mix up the two stories?"

"Why mix up this story with another which took place at that time?" said
the prince. "But I am not mixing them up, my dear madame; there is only one
story and I am telling it as it happened."

Hortense turned to her uncle. He sat silent, with his arms folded; and
his head remained in the shadow cast by the lamp-shade. Why had he not
protested?

Renine repeated in a firm tone:

"There is only one story. On the evening of that very day, the 5th of
September at eight o'clock, M. d'Aigleroche, doubtless alleging as his
reason that he was going in pursuit of the runaway couple, left his house
after boarding up the entrance. He went away, leaving all the rooms as
they were and removing only the firearms from their glass case. At the
last minute, he had a presentiment, which has been justified to-day, that
the discovery of the telescope which had played so great a part in the
preparation of his crime might serve as a clue to an enquiry; and he threw
it into the clock-case, where, as luck would have it, it interrupted
the swing of the pendulum. This unreflecting action, one of those which
every criminal inevitably commits, was to betray him twenty years later.
Just now, the blows which I struck to force the door of the drawing-room
released the pendulum. The clock was set going, struck eight o'clock ...
and I possessed the clue of thread which was to lead me through the
labyrinth."