human
Perfectly, madame, Frost replied.
gpt
But as yet you have told me nothing of your own connection with this strange history.
human
Pardon, dear boy, rejoined Madame de la Fontaine;
gpt
I was about to do so, but there is so much to tell. My own connection with the affair is quite simple. I am an old friend, one of the oldest, of Monsieur le Marquis de Boisdhyver, and, when I was a very young girl, I knew the Maréchal himself. It has been my happiness to be able to prove my friendship for a noble and a fallen family. One day last summer, Monsieur de Boisdhyver told me his brother's dying words, and it was I, Monsieur Dan, who was able to give the money for this strange expedition. The poor Marquis had lost quite all his fortune.
human
I understand, said Frost.
gpt
But, yet, madame, I do not see the necessity for the secrecy, the mystery, for these strange signals at night, for these midnight investigations, for this schooner and its rough crew, for Nancy's disappearance, for my own imprisonment here.
human
Please, please, murmured Madame de la Fontaine, as she held up her hands in smiling protest.
gpt
You go too fast for me. _Un moment, mon ami, un moment_. It was sixteen years ago that the Maréchal de Boisdhyver was a guest at the Inn at the Red Oak. You forget that the Marquis de Boisdhyver had no proof of his right to the treasure, save his own story, save his account of his brother's instructions on the field of Waterloo. By telling all he might have awakened deeper suspicions than by secrecy.
human
That, I must say, Dan interrupted,