At their request he retold his story, giving additional details. His eleven weeks in France had improved his French out of all recognition, so that although he still had a noticeable accent he could talk with unhesitating fluency; and, since he was by nature a born raconteur, he kept the small company enthralled through several courses.
Athenais both fascinated and intrigued him. He thought her quite the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, and could only compare her in his mind to a fairy, from the top of a Christmas tree. It may be that she put the idea into his head herself as she seemed fond of fairy stories and made frequent references to them, chaffingly remarking that she felt sure he must be a Prince in disguise, or at least, a miller's youngest son, since they always leave home in search of dragons to kill and end up with a Princess for their bride.
Yet he found it extraordinarily difficult to place her satisfactorily. She was so small and slight of build that she could well have been taken at first sight for no more than thirteen; moreover, she frequently showed the most abysmal ignorance on many matters of common interest, and spoke with the petulant, dictatorial manner of a spoilt child. But, against this, the air of dignity and authority that she equally frequently assumed, and her rather surprising fund of knowledge upon certain subjects, suggested that she might easily be a physically undeveloped seventeen.
Roger had yet to learn the reason for these strange anomalies, which were by no means uncommon among young people of her class in France at that time. Among the French nobility family life had degenerated to such an extent that it was the common practice for parents to leave their offspring during the whole period of childhood in the care of servants on their country estates, or often, even put them out to board with some almost illiterate family. There they were left, rarely seeing their parents and frequently entirely forgotten by them, until they reached their teens. They were only then belatedly given tutors and governesses, to fit them for the high stations in life they were to occupy; but, once they emerged from the sad neglect to which they had been subject, they were given rich clothes, money, fine apartments and a horde of servants to wait on them, and were, in fact, expected to behave like grown-ups with the full exercise of the authority over all inferiors which was assumed to be theirs by right of birth.
Athenais de Rochambeau was at this time actually fourteen and a quarter, while her brother Lucien was just one year younger, and it was a bare two years since they had been removed from their foster-parents to begin their education; yet in those two years they had both learned to regard themselves as people of great importance- in the small world they occupied, and born to be obeyed. Normally, despite the fact that he was the younger of the two, the boy would have been the dominant partner of the pair but, as Roger had rightly assessed, he was a dullard, so she, conscious that she was one of the greatest heiresses in Brittany, had made herself the pivot round which the life of the great mansion revolved during her father's absence.
They had reached a marvellous confection of violet ice-cream topped by a mass of spun sugar when the Abb<§ said to Roger
"And what is it your intention to do now. Monsieur Breuc?"
"I hardly know, Monsieur I'Abbé," replied Roger, but having by now had a chance to sort out his ideas to some extent he went on: "After some little thought, this man Fouché may realise that, as I could have no possible motive for murdering my poor old friend, his case is a weak one, and decide not to pursue it. If that occurs, as I pray it may, I feel under a natural obligation to arrange for Doctor Fenelon's burial. Then, too, I am most anxious to return to the Du Guesclin for the purpose of recovering the purse I dropped. It may still be lying in a dark corner of the passage or, if someone has picked it up, unless they are downright dishonest, they will have given it for safe keeping to the landlord. Yet I greatly hesitate to go there until I feel a little more confident that I'll not be putting my head in a noose. Would you, Monsieur L'Abbé do me the favour of giving me your advice?"
"I am no man of the robe," the old priest replied, "so 'tis outside my office to offer an opinion on legal matters. Yet it does seem to me that this purse containing fifty-four louis would have been motive enough to incite a young man in your situation to the crime, had he the nature of a murderer. According to your own account you fled with it, and I should not have thought it usual for one so many years junior to his partner to be entrusted with the whole resources of a partnership."
"There was an especial reason for that," Roger broke in quickly. "As I have told you "
The Abbé Duchesnie raised his hand. "I know, I know, my young friend. I do not seek to question your own explanation but, as I understand it, you have no one whom you can bring forward to give evidence of the Doctor's habits, and I am simply putting to you the view that the police may take of this matter."
From having regained some degree of optimism Roger was suddenly cast back into the depths of gloom. He realised now that the good food and wine and rich surroundings had given him a false sense of security and that in the cold light of impartial examination his case must look very black indeed. The Doctor had died by violence and he, Roger, had made off with what would undoubtedly be assumed to be his partner's money.
Madame Marie-Ange saw his look of misery and, being a good-natured, motherly woman, strove to comfort him, by saying:
"I do not see what this Monsieur Fouché has to gain by fixing the assassination on Monsieur Breuc."
"Why, to prevent it being fixed upon himself, Madame," promptly replied the Abbé.
"But he could equally well say that the Doctor took his own life to save himself from being arrested," urged the governess. " 'Twould be beyond reason vindictive in any man, however ill-natured, to send another who had done him no harm to the rope."
"A thousand thanks, Madame!" Roger exclaimed eagerly. "There is much in what you say. And in my own mind, I feel confident now, that Fouché called 'Murder' after me not so much with a view to getting me hanged, but to have me stopped so that he might secure the purse."
"Is he likely, though, once having made the charge, to withdraw it?" pessimistically remarked the Abbé.
" 'Twould be easy for him to say that people had misunderstood his cries," Madame Marie-Ange retorted. "He could claim that by his cry of 'Murder' he had meant no more than that a violent death had just occurred, and that those who heard him had confused it with his shouts of 'Stop, thief'!"
"By so doing he could save himself from the sin of perjury and avoid the burden of attending at a lengthy trial," the Abbé agreed. "And as you, Madame, have very rightly pointed out, there seems no particular cause for him to carry vindictiveness to the point of endeavouring to bring about our young friend's death."
Athenais shrugged her slim shoulders. "You have admitted, Monsieur l'Abbé, that you know little of such matters, and I know nothing. Why should we not send for the notary—what is his name—
Maitre—Maitre ?"
"Leger," supplied the Abbé.
"Yes, Maitre Leger. Let us summon him and find out."
She had no sooner had the idea than she turned to Aldegonde and ordered him to send a messenger with instructions that she required Maitre Leger to wait on her at once. Then, having toyed a little with the desserts, they all retired to the yellow salon to await the lawyer's arrival.
Within a quarter of an hour Maitre Leger was announced. He proved to be a man of about sixty and something of a dandy. His green suit was of cloth but very well cut, with padded shoulders and silver buttons. His cravat and wristbands were of fine lawn and his hair, which had been black, now being flecked with grey had the smart appearance of having been lightly dusted with powder. Beneath a broad forehead he had a pair of lively brown eyes, a very sharply pointed nose and a firm, thin mouth.