“I am glad I have met you,” she retorted, bravely facing him.
“Ah!” he sighed. “And yet you play tricks on me! Yet you make promises to me and break them!”
“No, no,” she cried. “I only promised to go to the boat, and I would have gone to the boat afterwards.”
“Why did you not go at once?”
She told him how she had gone by accident into Pauline’s bedroom and found it empty, and how thus all her suspicions were aroused.
“I was afraid your plans might fail,” she said; “and you had threatened to kill yourself if they failed; and I thought something dreadful might happen during my absence. And so—so—I hid myself here—without thinking. I’m so sorry.”
And tears came to her eyes.
“A few minutes ago I might have been seriously perturbed by what you have told me,” said Jetsam. “But what does it matter now? If your sister is against me, if the house is surrounded by spies, it makes no difference. I wanted to kill this man here. I should have killed him; but I thought of the annoyance it would give you. Yes,” he smiled, “I did really. Not to mention the futile trouble it would cause me. And on the whole I regarded it as simpler and neater to kill myself. But you have stopped that. Will you oblige me by putting down that revolver? It is at full cock.”
“You will not touch it?” she demanded.
“I will not touch it,” he replied.