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understood that I shall visit and spend the day with my aunt at the Rue
des Drômes--I well tell St. Eustache not to call for me until dark--in
this way, my absence from home for the longest possible period, without
causing suspicion or anxiety, will be accounted for, and I shall gain
more time than in any other manner. If I bid St. Eustache call for me
at dark, he will be sure not to call before; but, if I wholly neglect
to bid him call, my time for escape will be diminished, since it will
be expected that I return the earlier, and my absence will the sooner
excite anxiety. Now, if it were my design to return at all--if I had in
contemplation merely a stroll with the individual in question--it would
not be my policy to bid St. Eustache call; for, calling, he will be sure
to ascertain that I have played him false--a fact of which I might keep
him for ever in ignorance, by leaving home without notifying him of my
intention, by returning before dark, and by then stating that I had been
to visit my aunt in the Rue des Drômes. But, as it is my design never
to return--or not for some weeks--or not until certain concealments are
effected--the gaining of time is the only point about which I need give
myself any concern.'
"
You have observed, in your notes, that the most general opinion in
relation to this sad affair is, and was from the first, that the girl
had been the victim of a gang of blackguards. Now, the popular opinion,
under certain conditions, is not to be disregarded. When arising of
itself--when manifesting itself in a strictly spontaneous manner--we
should look upon it as analogous with that intuition which is the
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