Do you still feel any desire to stand up in his defence ?" "Not the slightest, but yet it seems to me a shocking thing that a mere joke should lead to such consequences." "But who perpetrated that joke, let me ask?
neither you nor myself, but Fernand; you knew very well that I threw the paper into a corner of the room--indeed, I fancied I had destroyed it." "Oh, no," replied Caderousse, "that I can answer for, you did not.

I only wish I could see it now as plainly as I saw it lying all crushed and crumpled in a corner of the arbor." "Well, then, if you did, depend upon it, Fernand picked it up, and either copied it or caused it to be copied; perhaps, even, he did not take the trouble of recopying it.

And now I think of it, by Heavens, he may have sent the letter itself! Fortunately, for me, the handwriting was disguised." "Then you were aware of Dantes being engaged in a conspiracy ?" "Not I.As I before said, I thought the whole thing was a joke, nothing more.

It seems, however, that I have unconsciously stumbled upon the truth." "Still," argued Caderousse, "I would give a great deal if nothing of the kind had happened; or, at least, that I had had no hand in it.

You will see, Danglars, that it will turn out an unlucky job for both of us." "Nonsense! If any harm come of it, it should fall on the guilty person; and that, you know, is Fernand.