“And you will be able to make it all out?” asked M. de Chandore.
“Certainly, dear grandpapa. Ever since Jacques explained it to me, I have tried to learn it as a matter of course. We have chose a book which I am very fond of, Cooper’s ‘Spy;’ and we amused ourselves by writing endless letters. Oh! it is very amusing, and it takes time, because one does not always find the words that are needed, and then they have to be spelled letter by letter.”
“And M. de Boiscoran has a copy of Cooper’s novels in his prison?” asked M. Folgat.
“Yes, sir. M. Mechinet told me so. As soon as Jacques found he was to be kept in close confinement, he asked for some of Cooper’s novels, and M. Galpin, who is so cunning, so smart, and so suspicious, went himself and got them for him. Jacques was counting upon me.”
“Then, dear child, go and read your letter, and solve the riddle,” said M. de Chandore.
When she had left, he said to his companion,--
“How she loves him! How she loves this man Jacques! Sir, if any thing should happen to him, she would die.”
M. Folgat made no reply; and nearly an hour passed, before Dionysia, shut up in her room, had succeeded in finding all the words of which Jacques’s letter was composed. But when she had finished, and came back to her grandfather’s study, her youthful face expressed the most profound despair.
The same idea crossed, like a sharp arrow, the minds of M. de Chandore and M. Folgat. Had Jacques confessed?
“Look, read yourself!” said Dionysia, handing them the translation.
“Thanks for your letter, my darling. A presentiment had warned me, and I had asked for a copy of Cooper.
“I understand but too well how grieved you must be at seeing me kept in prison without my making an effort to establish my innocence. I kept silence, because I hoped the proof of my innocence would come from outside. I see that it would be madness to hope so any longer, and that I must speak. I shall speak. But what I have to say is so very serious, that I shall keep silence until I shall have had an opportunity of consulting with some one in whom I can feel perfect confidence. Prudence alone is not enough now: skill also is required. Until now I felt secure, relying on my innocence. But the last examination has opened my eyes, and I now see the danger to which I am exposed.