Graham Vane had heard nothing for months from M. Renard,
when one morning he received the letter I translate:
“Monsieur,—I am happy to inform
you that I have at last obtained one piece of information
which may lead to a more important discovery.
When we parted after our fruitless research in Vienna,
we had both concurred in the persuasion that, for
some reason known only to the two ladies themselves,
Madame Marigny and Madame Duval had exchanged names—that
it was Madame Marigny who had deceased in the name
of Madame Duval, and Madame Duval who had survived
in that of Marigny.
“It was clear to me that the beau Monsieur
who had visited the false Duval must have been cognisant
of this exchange of name, and that, if his name and
whereabouts could be ascertained, he, in all probability,
would know what had become of the lady who is the
object of our research; and after the lapse of so
many years he would probably have very slight motive
to preserve the concealment of facts which might, no
doubt, have been convenient at the time. The
lover of the soi-disant Mademoiselle Duval
was by such accounts as we could gain a man of some
rank—very possibly a married man; and the
liaison, in short, was one of those which, while they
last, necessitate precautions and secrecy.
“Therefore, dismissing all attempts at further
trace of the missing lady, I resolved to return to
Vienna as soon as the business that recalled me to
Paris was concluded, and devote myself exclusively
to the search after the amorous and mysterious Monsieur.
“I did not state this determination to you,
because, possibly, I might be in error—or,
if not in error, at least too sanguine in my expectations—
and it is best to avoid disappointing an honourable
client.
“One thing was clear, that, at the time of the
soi-disant Duval’s decease, the beau
Monsieur was at Vienna.
“It appeared also tolerably clear that when
the lady friend of the deceased quitted Munich so
privately, it was to Vienna she repaired, and from
Vienna comes the letter demanding the certificates
of Madame Duval’s death. Pardon me, if
I remind you of all these circumstances no doubt fresh
in your recollection. I repeat them in order
to justify the conclusions to which they led me.
“I could not, however, get permission to absent
myself from Paris for the time I might require till
the end of last April. I had meanwhile sought
all private means of ascertaining what Frenchmen of
rank and station were in that capital in the autumn
of 1849. Among the list of the very few such
Messieurs I fixed upon one as the most likely to be
the mysterious Achille—Achille was, indeed,
his nom de bapteme.
