Leroux wrote those letters before she left London; Soames never posted
them, but handed them over to some representative of Mr. King; this
other, in turn, posted them to Madame Jean in Paris! Morbleu! these are
clever rogues! This which I was fortunate enough to discover had been
on top, you understand, this billet, and the outer envelope being very
heavily stamped, that below retained the impress of the post-mark."
"Poor Leroux!" said Cumberly again, with suppressed emotion. "That
unsuspecting, kindly soul has been drawn into the meshes of this
conspiracy. How they have been wound around him, until..."
"He knows the truth about his wife?" asked Max, suddenly glancing up at
the physician, "that she is not in Paris?"
"I, myself, broke the painful news to him," replied Cumberly--"after a
consultation with Miss Ryland and my daughter. I considered it my duty
to tell him, but I cannot disguise from myself that it hastened, if it
did not directly occasion, his breakdown."
"Yes, yes," said Max; "we have been very fortunate however in diverting
the attention of the press from the absence of Mrs. Leroux throughout
this time. Nom d'un nom! Had they got to know about the scrap of
paper found in the dead woman's hand, I fear that this would have been
impossible.
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