“It is a lie, another damnable lie! I was at the Embassy to-day.”
“You forget; I was there and saw Mr. Marvyn—last night.”
“My God!”
His whole soul seemed to speak in that one cry of dismay; and for a moment he looked at the packet like a dazed man, afraid to open it and learn the truth. Then with shaking frenzied fingers he tore at the seals.
Helga clung to my arm.
The paper was tough and resisted his efforts for a time, thus accentuating his excitement and suspense.
At last he opened it and stared at the blank sheets.
Then he turned on me such a look of baffled rage as I had never seen on a man’s face before.
He strove to speak, and failed; and the sheets fluttered down to the ground from his nerveless fingers.
Then he sprang up and staggered toward me, stopped suddenly, uttered a loud inarticulate cry, and pressing his hand to his heart, fell prone almost at my feet.