Accordingly, he contrived to smile, and even stammered an
acknowledgment of Madame d'Arlange's good wishes. Then, as if he had no
more to expect, he made her a low bow and withdrew.

This new misfortune well-nigh overwhelmed him. One by one all the
threads upon which he had relied to guide him out of this intricate
labyrinth were breaking in his hands. In the present instance he
could scarcely be the dupe of some fresh comedy, for if the murderer's
accomplice had taken Doisty, the jeweler, into his confidence he would
have instructed him to say that the earring had never come from his
establishment, and that he could not consequently tell whom it had been
sold to. On the contrary, however, Doisty and his wife had readily given
Madame d'Arlange's name, and all the circumstances pointed in favor of
their sincerity. Then, again, there was good reason to believe in
the veracity of the marchioness's assertions. They were sufficiently
authenticated by a significant glance which Lecoq had detected between
the jeweler and his wife. The meaning of this glance could not be
doubted. It implied plainly that both husband and wife were of opinion
that in buying these earrings the marchioness engaged in one of those
little speculations which are more common than many people might suppose
among ladies moving in high-class society. Being in urgent want of ready
money, she had bought on credit at a high price to sell for cash at a
loss.

As Lecoq was anxious to investigate the matter as far as possible,
he returned to Doisty's establishment, and, by a plausible pretext,
succeeded in gaining a sight of the books in which the jeweler
recorded his transactions. He soon found the sale of the earrings duly
recorded--specified by Madame Doisty at the date--both in the day-book
and the ledger. Madame d'Arlange first paid 9,000 francs on account and
the balance of the purchase money (an equivalent sum) had been received
in instalments at long intervals subsequently. Now, if it had been easy
for Madame Milner to make a false entry in her traveler's registry at
the Hotel de Mariembourg, it was absurd to suppose that the jeweler
had falsified all his accounts for four years. Hence, the facts were
indisputable; and yet, the young detective was not satisfied.

He hurried to the Faubourg Saint Honore, to the house formerly occupied
by the Baroness de Watchau, and there found a good-natured concierge,
who at once informed him that after the Baroness'