“Is that so? I did not know it; but it does not surprise me in the least.” Her voice sank. “He found out somehow that before I was married I—I——”
“There’s not the least need to go into that sort of detail, Mrs. Plant,” Roger interposed quickly. “All that concerns me is that he was blackmailing you; I don’t want to know why.”
Mrs. Plant flashed a grateful look at him.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “Well, I will just say that it was in connection with an incident which happened before I was married. I have never told my husband about it (it was all past and done with before I ever met him), because I knew that it would break his heart. And we are devotedly in love with each other,” she added simply.
“I understand,” Roger murmured sympathetically.
“Then that devil found out about it! For he was a devil, Mr. Sheringham,” Mrs. Plant said, looking at Roger with wide eyes, in which traces of horror still lingered. “I could never have imagined that anyone could be so absolutely inhuman. Oh! It was hell!” She shuddered involuntarily.
“He demanded money, of course,” she went on after a minute in a calmer voice; “and I paid him every penny I could. You must understand that I was willing to face any sacrifice rather than that my husband should be told. The other night I had to tell him that I had no more money left. I lied when I told you what time I went into the library. He stopped me in the hall to tell me that he wanted to see me there at half-past twelve. That would be when everyone else was in bed, you see. Mr. Stanworth always preserved the greatest secrecy about these meetings.”
“And you went at half-past twelve?” Roger prompted sympathetically.
“Yes, taking my jewels with me. I told him that I had no more money. He wasn’t angry. He never was. Just cold and sneering and horrible. He said he’d take the jewels for that time, but I must bring him the money he wanted—two hundred and fifty pounds—in three months’ time.”
“But how could you, if you hadn’t got it?”