"To speak frankly, I haven't 'staggered' you this time?"
"Not very much."
"I seem to you to have played a secondary part. For, after all, what have I done? We arrived. We listened to Jean Louis' tale of woe. I had a midwife fetched. And that was all."
"Exactly. I want to know if that was all; and I'm not quite sure. To tell you the truth, our other adventures left behind them an impression which was—how shall I put it?—more definite, clearer."
"And this one strikes you as obscure?"
"Obscure, yes, and incomplete."
"But in what way?"
"I don't know. Perhaps it has something to do with that woman's confession. Yes, very likely that is it. It was all so unexpected and so short."
"Well, of course, I cut it short, as you can readily imagine!" said Rénine, laughing. "We didn't want too man
