ensible means, had
been able to elude us.

"Then follows a silence. What a silence! We are all there--looking at
her--her father, Larsan, Daddy Jacques and I. What were we all thinking
of in the silence? After the events of that night, of the mystery of
the inexplicable gallery, of the prodigious fact of the presence of the
murderer in her room, it seemed to me that all our thoughts might have
been translated into the words which were addressed to her. 'You who
know of this mystery, explain it to us, and we shall perhaps be able
to save you. How I longed to save her--for herself, and, from the
other!--It brought the tears to my eyes.

"She is there, shedding about her the perfume of the lady in black. At
last, I see her, in the silence of her chamber. Since the fatal hour of
the mystery of The Yellow Room, we have hung about this invisible and
silent woman to learn what she knows. Our desires, our wish to know must
be a torment to her. Who can tell that, should we learn the secret of
her mystery, it would not precipitate a tragedy more terrible than that
which had already been enacted here? Who can tell if it might not mean
her death? Yet it had brought her close to death,--and we still knew
nothing. Or, rather, there are some of us who know nothing. But I--if I
knew who, I should know all. Who?--Who?--Not knowing who, I must remain
silent, out of pity for her. For there is no doubt that she knows how he
escaped from The Yellow Room, and yet she keeps the secret. When I know
who, I will speak to him--to him!"

"She looked at us now--with a far-away look in her eyes--as if we were
not in the chamber. Monsieur Stangerson broke the silence. He declared
that, henceforth, he would no more absent himself from his daughter's
apartments. She tried to oppose him in vain. He adhered firmly to his
purpose. He would install himself there this very night, he said. Solely
concerned for the health of his daughter, he reproached her for having
left her bed. Then he suddenly began talking to her as if she were a
little child. He smiled at her and seemed not to know either what
he said or what he did. The illustrious professor had lost his
head. Mademoiselle Stangerson in a tone of tender distress said:
'Father!--father!' Daddy Jacques blows his nose, and Frederic Larsan
himself is obliged to turn away to hide his emotion. For myself, I am
able neither to think or feel. I felt an infinite contempt for myself.

"It was the first time