"Is Varnier there? Come in, Varnier." A man looking like a small tradesman, squat, solidly built, firmly set upon his legs, entered at the summons. The prince closed the door behind him: "Well, Varnier, how far are you?" "Everything's ready for this evening, governor." "Good. Tell me in a few words." "It's like this. After her husband's murder, Mrs. Kesselbach, on the strength of the prospectuses which you ordered to be sent to her, selected as her residence the establishment known as the Retreat for Gentlewomen, at Garches. She occupies the last of the four small houses, at the bottom of the garden, which the management lets to ladies who prefer to live quite apart from the other boarders, the house known as the Pavillon de l'Impératrice." "What servants has she?" "Her companion, Gertrude, with whom she arrived a few hours after the crime, and Gertrude's sister Suzanne, whom she sent for to Monte Carlo and who acts as her maid. The two sisters are devoted to her." "What about Edwards, the valet?" "She did not keep him. He has gone back to his own country." "Does she see people?" "No. She spends her time lying on a sofa. She seems very weak and ill. She cries a great deal. Yesterday the examining-magistrate was with her for two hours." "Very good. And now about the young girl." "Mlle. Geneviève Ernemont lives across the way . . . in a lane running toward the open country, the third house on the right in the lane. She keeps a free school for backward children. Her grandmother, Mme. Ernemont, lives with her." "And, according to what you wrote to me, Geneviève Ernemont and Mrs. Kesselbach have become acquainted?" "Yes. The girl went to ask Mrs. Kesselbach for a subscription for her school. They must have taken a liking to each other, for, during the past four days, they have been walking together in the Parc de Villeneuve, of which the garden of the Retreat is only a dependency." "At what time do they go out?" "From five to six. At six o'clock exactly the young lady goes back to her school." "So you have arranged the thing?" "For six o'clock to-day. Everything is ready." "Will there be no one there?" "There is never any one in the park at that hour." "Very well. I shall be there. You can go." He sent him out through the door leading to the hall, and, returning to the waiting-room, called: "The brothers Doudeville." Two young men entered, a little overdressed, keen-eyed and pleasant-looking. "Good morning, Jean. Good morning, Jacques. Any news at the Prefecture?" "Nothing much, governor." "Does M. Lenormand continue to have confidence in you?" "Yes. Next to Gourel, we are his favorite inspectors. A proof is that he has posted us in the Palace Hotel to watch the people who were living on the first-floor passage at the time of Chapman's murder. Gourel comes every morning, and we make the same report to him that we do to you."