“Come,” urged Kennedy, not harshly but firmly, then, as she held back, added, playing a trump card, “We must work quickly. In his hands we found the fragments of a torn dress. When the police—”
She uttered a shriek. A glance had told her, if she had deceived herself before, that Kennedy knew her secret.
Antoinette Moulton was standing before him, talking rapidly.
“Some one has told Lynn. I know it. There is nothing now that I can conceal. If you had come half an hour later you would not have found me. He had written to Mr. Schloss, threatening him that if he did not leave the country he would shoot him at sight. Mr. Schloss showed me the letter.
“It had come to this. I must either elope with Schloss, or lose his aid. The thought of either was unendurable. I hated him—yet was dependent on him.
“To-night I met him, in his empty apartment, alone. I knew that he had what was left of his money with him, that everything was packed up. I went prepared. I would not elope. My plan was no less than to make him pay the balance on the necklace that he had lost—or to murder him.
“I carried a new pistol in my muff, one which Lynn had just bought. I don’t know how I did it. I was desperate.
“He told me he loved me, that Lynn did not, never had—that Lynn had married me only to show off his wealth and diamonds, to give him a social! position—that I was merely a—a piece of property—a dummy.
“He tried to kiss me. It was revolting. I struggled away from him.
“And in the struggle, the revolver fell from my muff and exploded on the floor.