{"product_id":"2940012986078","title":"THE LEROUGE CASE","description":"CHAPTER I.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn Thursday, the 6th of March, 1862, two days after Shrove Tuesday, five\u003cbr\u003ewomen belonging to the village of La Jonchere presented themselves at\u003cbr\u003ethe police station at Bougival.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey stated that for two days past no one had seen the Widow Lerouge,\u003cbr\u003eone of their neighbours, who lived by herself in an isolated cottage.\u003cbr\u003eThey had several times knocked at the door, but all in vain. The\u003cbr\u003ewindow-shutters as well as the door were closed; and it was impossible\u003cbr\u003eto obtain even a glimpse of the interior.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis silence, this sudden disappearance alarmed them. Apprehensive of\u003cbr\u003ea crime, or at least of an accident, they requested the interference of\u003cbr\u003ethe police to satisfy their doubts by forcing the door and entering the\u003cbr\u003ehouse.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBougival is a pleasant riverside village, peopled on Sundays by crowds\u003cbr\u003eof boating parties. Trifling offences are frequently heard of in its\u003cbr\u003eneighbourhood, but crimes are rare.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe commissary of police at first refused to listen to the women, but\u003cbr\u003etheir importunities so fatigued him that he at length acceded to their\u003cbr\u003erequest. He sent for the corporal of gendarmes, with two of his\u003cbr\u003emen, called into requisition the services of a locksmith, and, thus\u003cbr\u003eaccompanied, followed the neighbours of the Widow Lerouge.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLa Jonchere owes some celebrity to the inventor of the sliding railway,\u003cbr\u003ewho for some years past has, with more enterprise than profit, made\u003cbr\u003epublic trials of his system in the immediate neighbourhood. It is\u003cbr\u003ea hamlet of no importance, resting upon the slope of the hill which\u003cbr\u003eoverlooks the Seine between La Malmaison and Bougival. It is about\u003cbr\u003etwenty minutes' walk from the main road, which, passing by Rueil and\u003cbr\u003ePort-Marly, goes from Paris to St. Germain, and is reached by a steep\u003cbr\u003eand rugged lane, quite unknown to the government engineers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe party, led by the gendarmes, followed the main road which here\u003cbr\u003ebordered the river until it reached this lane, into which it turned, and\u003cbr\u003estumbled over the rugged inequalities of the ground for about a hundred\u003cbr\u003eyards, when it arrived in front of a cottage of extremely modest yet\u003cbr\u003erespectable appearance. This cottage had probably been built by some\u003cbr\u003elittle Parisian shopkeeper in love with the beauties of nature; for\u003cbr\u003eall the trees had been carefully cut down. It consisted merely of two\u003cbr\u003eapartments on the ground floor with a loft above. Around it extended a\u003cbr\u003emuch-neglected garden, badly protected against midnight prowlers, by\u003cbr\u003ea very dilapidated stone wall about three feet high, and broken and\u003cbr\u003ecrumbling in many places. A light wooden gate, clumsily held in its\u003cbr\u003eplace by pieces of wire, gave access to the garden.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It is here,\" said the women.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47073704378608,"sku":"2940012986078","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012986078_p0.jpg?v=1763575398","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012986078","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}