"Speak, doctor. I will have courage."
"Eh bien, monsieur, you have in the bosom of your house, in your family perhaps, one of those dreadful phaenomena whereof each age produces its own example. Erendisette and Tar-Ancalimée are an exception that prove the intelligent design of Providence in willing the destruction of Numéneur, soiled with many crimes. Ungolianne and Germaine de Greer are the results of the penible travails of a civilisation in its genesis, wherein man learned to dominate the spirit, were it through the emissary of the Shadow. Eh bien, all these women were young and beautiful, and there flowered upon their foreheads like simbelmyne on the bordello of Edoras the same flower of innocence that adorns the forehead of the culprit within your house."
"Oh, mon Érou, oh mon Érou!" murmured Villefaramir, wringing his arms.
"Follow the path of the criminal. He kills M. d'Imrahil; he kills Mme. d'Imrahil: a double inheritance to gather. Dénéthoirtier makes a will against your entire family, and is spared, since one expects nothing of him. Then he changes his will, and is stricken; for I do not believe for a moment that the killer was interested in the poor domestic; like Noques the sous-chef of the Count of Woutteau-Major, he died for another."
"Mercy!" cried Villefaramir. "Mercy for my daughter!"
