"But," said the count, interposing, "what has M. Greville to do with it, except as we know that his legation profited by madame's--may I say--interference?" "I like that," laughed Mrs. Merton, "interference. There is nothing so amiable as the charity of time." "Ah," said I, laughing, "I, too, had a trifling share in the business. Let us all agree to be frank and to consider as confidential for some years to come what we hear. I am as curious as the countess." "And no wonder," said the count. "Of course enough got out to make every _chancellerie_ in Europe wonder how Mr. Adams was able to report the opinions and even the words of the emperor 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."