"I must be an infernal blackguard, then."
"That's the truest thing you've said since you came. It's just what you are; and the von Reblings ought to know it."
"You haven't told me how I got that valuable information yet. I should like to know that."
"If you'll let that lost memory of yours wake up for a second, just long enough to remember the name of Anna Hilden, you'll know all about it without a word from me." His sneering suggestive tone clearly showed that this was one of his trump cards, and he fixed his eyes on me, keenly watching for the effect.
"But my memory won't oblige me by waking up, you see. Had she anything to do with it?"
"To the devil with all your pretended innocence! You know she had, and that you induced her to worm it out of the man she was to have married, if you hadn't come in the road; just as you're trying now with me," he cried, scowling at me threateningly. "But you've got a man to deal with this time, not a woman, and the wrong sort of man too."
I dropped the bantering tone and answered seriously. "Of course all you say may be the gospel truth, but I give you my word that I haven't the faintest recollection of anything you've mentioned."
He laughed scornfully. "That's a lie," he growled with an oath.
I had had more than enough and I got up. "If this weren't your own place, I'd cram that word down your throat; and the next time we meet, wherever it is, I'll do it," I told him.
He seemed to understand that I meant it, and a change came over his face. "I'll take that back," he muttered. "Sit down again."