I brought her here myself just before you came.

She looked through the girl's wardrobe to see what was missing." "Was she alone in the room ?" "Not for a moment," said M.Besnard haughtily.

"Really, monsieur, we are not so ignorant of how an affair of this kind should be conducted.
I was in the room myself the whole time, with my eye upon her." "That was just before I came," said Hanaud.

He crossed carelessly to the open window which overlooked the road and, leaning out of it, looked up the road to the corner round which he and his friends had come, precisely as the Commissaire had done.

Then he turned back into the room.
"Which was the last cupboard or drawer that Helene Vauquier touched ?" he asked.
"This one." Besnard stooped and pulled open the bottom drawer of a chest which stood in the embrasure of the window.