The Tace family, which consisted of Adele and her husband and
Jeanne, her mother, were practised criminals. They had taken the
house in Geneva deliberately in order to carry out some robberies
from the great villas on the lake-side. But they had not been
fortunate; and a description of Mme. Dauvray's jewellery in the
woman's column of a Geneva newspaper had drawn Adele Tace over to
Aix. She had set about the task of seducing Mme. Dauvray's maid,
and found a master, not an instrument.
In the small cafe on that afternoon of July Helene Vauquier
instructed her accomplices, quietly and methodically, as though
what she proposed was the most ordinary stroke of business. Once
or twice subsequently Wethermill, who was the only safe go-
between, went to the house in Geneva, altering his hair and
wearing a moustache, to complete the arrangements. He maintained
firmly at his trial that at none of these meetings was there any
talk of murder.
"To be sure," said the judge, with a savage sarcasm. "In decent
conversation there is always a reticence. Something is left to be
understood."
And it is difficult to understand how murder could not have been
an essential part of their plan, since---But let us see what
happened.