"Will you defy me to the last?" he exclaimed.
"You can only kill me," she moaned; "do it and let me have peace!"
He flung the bracelet down upon the table.
"I have loved you, and I know that you are false!"
"What do you suspect?" she demanded. "What do you know?"
The momentary weakness of passion passed; the husband stood up again cold and stern.
"I know," he said, "that this bracelet was in the hands of a bad, wicked man; only yesterday he took it from the pawnbroker's, and now I find it in your possession."
There was a hope; only in another deception; but she must save herself; while there was a thread to grasp at, she could not allow herself to be swept down the gathering storm.
"And is there no possibility that I may be innocent in all this?" she exclaimed. "If I receive an anonymous letter, telling me I can find my bracelet by paying a certain reward, is it not natural that I should go? Knowing your strange disposition, is it not equally natural that I should keep the whole thing a secret, and strive to make every one believe that the bracelet had been mislaid."
"Is this true?" he cried. "Can you prove to me that you speak the truth?"