"Of course you need
not criminate yourself."
"What should I know about it? No;--I know nothing about the stick. I
never had such a stick, or, as I believe, saw one before." He did it
very well, but he could not keep the blood from rising to his cheeks.
The policemen were sure that he was the murderer,--but what could
they do?
"You saved his life, certainly," said the Duchess to her friend on
the Sunday afternoon. That had been before the bludgeon was found.
"I do not believe that they could have touched a hair of his head,"
said Madame Goesler.
"Would they not? Everybody felt sure that he would be hung. Would
it not have been awful? I do not see how you are to help becoming
man and wife now, for all the world are talking about you." Madame
Goesler smiled, and said that she was quite indifferent to the
world's talk. On the Tuesday after the bludgeon was found, the two
ladies met again. "Now it was known that it was the clergyman," said
the Duchess.
"I never doubted it."
"He must have been a brave man for a foreigner,--to have attacked Mr.
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