Her
eyes were fixed upon her unworthy husband, and the happiness she felt at
seeing him again shone plainly in her anxious gaze. Just for one second;
and then she caught his withering glance and heard his words of menace.
Terror-stricken, she staggered back, and then Lecoq seized her around
the waist, and, lifting her with his strong arms, carried her out into
the passage. The whole scene had been so brief that M. Segmuller was
still forming the order for Toinon to be removed from the room, when he
found the door closed again, and himself and Goguet alone with Polyte.
"Ah, ah!" thought the smiling clerk, in a flutter of delight, "this is
something new." But as these little diversions never made him forget his
duties, he leaned toward the magistrate and asked: "Shall I take down
the last words the witness uttered?"
"Certainly," replied M. Segmuller, "and word for word, if you please."
He paused; the door opened again, this time to admit the magistrate's
messenger, who timidly, and with a rather guilty air, handed his master
a note, and then withdrew. This note, scribbled in pencil by Lecoq on a
leaf torn from his memorandum book, gave the magistrate the name of
the woman who had just entered his room, and recapitulated briefly but
clearly the information obtained in the Rue de la Butte-aux-Cailles.
"That young fellow thinks of everything!" murmured M. Segmuller. The
meaning of the scene that had just occurred was now explained to him.
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