Granville's estate

"You, what do you mean?"

Louis didn't understand what Moina said at first, but when he did, he just felt his brain explode with a bang, but Moina didn't budge, she looked straight at him: " Just as you think—that man Durand went to Mrs. Lessing's flower shop that night, and he killed Mary."

"It's impossible, it's ridiculous!"

Louis was shocked and angry. He only felt that the woman in front of him was so terrifying, and he instinctively refused to believe her words: "This is simply impossible, how dare you say such a thing? Mr. Durand was not in Paris at all that day. And he's not the type to go to those places!"

"Uh, Moina, I think you've got something wrong."

After figuring out the meaning of Moina's words, Rao Alred couldn't help taking a breath, and he said dryly: "Although I don't like that gentleman very much, I have to say, He doesn't look like the kind of person who wanders around enough to go to a lover's house to have fun. To be honest, with his power and wealth, he can get any kind of woman he wants, and he doesn't need to go through that kind of place."

Moina ignored what they said. She turned her head and glanced at the street through the window, as if she was looking for the sign of Papa Peter who was out to buy medicine. Then she listened carefully to the movement in Mary's room.

"When I was comforting Mary, she held my hand and kept saying 'it's that person' to me - there were only a few people in the room at the time, who do you think she was talking about?"

Even though she said such terrible words, Moina's expression was very calm: "You should be glad that Joseph didn't hear her words at that time, otherwise, it's hard to say whether that gentleman can get out of here smoothly."

"No, no, it's absolutely impossible."

The person who hurt Mary was the Viscount Calliste de Durand—this news was like a bolt from the blue, Louis felt his eyes go black, he was almost out of breath, and grabbed Alred's arm, so as not to fall down due to dizziness: "He had already gone to the city of Dafrey that day, I know about it, it can't be him, it can't be, Mary must have made a mistake."

"Davray is not far from Paris. If you take a carriage, even if you come to Paris to watch a play at night, you can go back calmly."

"No, it must have been Mary's mistake, she's been so hurt, so terrified," Louis said, feeling every word he uttered was like a knife cutting his throat: "How could she Do you remember who it was?"

"She begged him."

If before that, Louis could still doubt that Mary had admitted the wrong person, then the words that Moina said next were undoubtedly hammering a nail into his heart, and every word could touch people's soft hearts. There was a bleeding wound on his face: "I guess those blue-green eyes and blond hair are recognizable, don't you? She recognized him then, because he had been here before, but no matter how hard she begged -"

"Enough, Moina!"

Seeing that Louis was almost out of breath, Alred couldn't help raising her voice and stopped her from continuing: "Whether it's true or not, don't say any more, I think we should find a way to make it Mary gets well, let's find out what the truth is."

After he stopped drinking like this, Moina shut up as expected, she looked thoughtfully and steadily at Alred and Louis who suddenly fell to the chair.

"Give me three hundred francs."

After standing there looking at them for a while, Moina suddenly said to Arred, without even explaining why she wanted the money: "Fifty and twenty francs would be better, banknotes would do, I'll go and exchange it for louis d'or myself."

"What do you want so much money for?" Alred asked a little tiredly, the words from Moina's mouth were really shocking, which made him a little overwhelmed by this woman: "I don't have much money anymore , and Dr. Muller's fee and the pharmacist's fee have to be paid, so I can't give you that much."

"I'm going to do something, don't ask." Moina replied, she tilted her head, ran her fingers through her hair, and at that moment, the kind of madness they had seen before The look appeared again: "If the matter is done, you will naturally know what it is."

"Come on, don't add new troubles to me, I will sincerely thank the Virgin Mary for her protection!"

With a grunt, Alrede groped all over his body and found two hundred-franc notes; then he took out the franc-box containing the change, but found only a five-franc piece and a A fifty-franc piece of gold—the very one he had once received from Marguerite.

He stared at the gold louis that had been placed at the bottom of the franc box, just like gazing at the beautiful face of his beloved woman; but in the end, he took the special gold louis out of the box, Handed over to Moina along with the bill.

"That's all I can give you," said Alred, without asking what Moina wanted to do.

Moina didn't ask him for the insufficient 45 francs anymore, she took the money and walked out of the living room without looking back; and as soon as she left, Alred felt powerless, and he was slow. Slowly sat down beside Louis.

"I think the person in Madam Lessing's flower shop that day should not be Viscount Durand."

Alred said to Louis, and he forced a smile: "Mary, she must have misunderstood someone, women are always like this, they are easy to make a fuss, even a mouse can scare them—"

It is undoubtedly inappropriate to say such things at this time. Alrede couldn’t help but stop when he was talking—as if God’s will came suddenly, at that moment, he suddenly thought of a and Someone close to the Viscount Durand: the viscount's cousin Galbien de Durand, a flirtatious libertine who has always had a reputation as a romantic and has the same grandfather as the Viscount; if it was actually him who Mary met that day, It would all make sense then, since Galbien had indeed been to 79 St. Georges Street, and it was no surprise that the gentleman would go to a place like the Lover's House.

Louis, who had been burying his face in his hands all this time, looked up, and he looked like he was about to cry.

"I never believed he would do something like that."

Louis said, as if to negate all the words Moina said, he repeated: "He would not do such a thing, it is absolutely impossible, he has been serving the Earl of Artois in the city of Davray Your Highness, he still came from there this morning, how could it be him? Mary must have made a mistake, many people have blond hair and blue eyes, she must have misread it."

"But……"

Alred hesitated, he thought about whether to say Galbien's name, but when his eyes met Louis, he found that his friend's eyes were full of tears, and he understood everything.

"Al," Louie said, almost begging, "Al, please stop talking!"

A little earlier than Alred, when Moina said that Mary "begged him bitterly", Louis realized that what Mary met was probably another member of the Durand family, that person and Callister also had blue-green eyes and blond hair, and just a few days ago the Viscount had complained to himself about his profligacy.

However, regardless of whether it was the viscount or his cousin who hurt the girl, this was too terrible for Louis to bear. For this reason, he even begged his friends not to say Galbien's name, as if this Instead of facing the scariest possibility: "Let's wait for Mary to get better before we talk about these things! Now she can't be stimulated anymore."

What else could Allred say?He could only nod his head, as if those words of Moina had never been uttered; but once the seeds of doubt germinated in his heart, the insects and ants of sin would be able to gnaw on them, making people's hearts tormented. Be at peace.

After Moina walked out with the money Alred gave her, she didn't show up again for a whole afternoon. People at 79 St. George Street thought she would never show up again, but when night fell, she appeared again. As if nothing had happened, he went back to Mary to take care of her, but kept silent about where he had been and what he had done all day.

"You'll find out in due time."

Facing the questioning of Papa Peter and Papa Tongsar, she only answered in this way.

It took two full days for her answer to come—in the middle of the night on the third day, a covered cart pulled up in front of the door of 79 St. George Street, and the gypsy driving it woke up the porter and told He: "Hey! Tell you people here that the potatoes you asked for have arrived."

"potato?"

It was an inexplicable situation, and when Louis and Alred went downstairs in their long coats against the cold, Moina was staying in front of the fireplace in the living room, and she seemed to have been prepared for this situation.

"It's what I want," she said to Alred, nonchalantly, without explaining what the situation was.

Two gypsy men walked in carrying a bag of so-called "potatoes" huffing and wheezing, but anyone only had to take a look to see that the huge cloth bag was definitely not grain - it was clearly a bundled From the muffled grunts of the tightly packed person who was still trying to struggle, the unlucky guy who was put in like a potato probably had his mouth gagged to prevent him from screaming.

But what surprised and angered Alred and Louie even more than the man in the apparently kidnapped bag was the man who had followed the gypsy.

The man was tall, with brown hair and gray eyes. He was obviously not a gypsy but he wore the same clothes as them. When he walked into 79 St. George Street, he didn't have any strange expressions at all, as if he hadn't walked into an enemy's house. Same place.

"Sologne Grostedt!"