"What kind of information do you desire?" asked M. Felix.
"When I was ill and very near to death," she replied; "when reason had forsaken me and I was lying stricken down, Gerald and you came to me in the place where afterward a civil ceremony was performed which I had every right to believe made me an honorably married woman. Tell me the name of that place. It is little to ask, but I ask no more. If you have a spark of compassion in you, tell me this, and I will go away blessing you."
"You do not remember it?" said M. Felix, with triumph in his eyes.
"God help me, I have not the least remembrance of it, nor of the roads I took which led me to it."
M. Felix stepped to the window and threw it open. Then he cried in as loud a voice as he could command:
"Help!"
"Why do you cry for help?" asked Emilia, advancing toward him.
"Do not come nearer to me," he replied, "or I will strangle you. Why do I cry for help? To bring the police here--to give you into custody--to expose and brand you as you deserve to be exposed and branded. How you forced your way into this house I do not know: perhaps you have been in hiding until you were assured I was alone. You come here to rob and murder. I will swear to it." Again he called from the window,
"Help!"
Frozen with terror Emilia stood like a statue, white with the fear of a horrible exposure which would blast her and her child forever in this world.