“Yes, it was a blackmailing scheme!” interrupted Morocco Kate, not without some curious and perverted sense of pride. “I admit that. I got you in wrong, LeGrand, but it wasn't because I hated you, for I didn't. I really loved you, and I was a fool to take up with Jean. But that's past and gone. Only I didn't really mean to make trouble for you. I thought you might be able to wiggle out, knowing business men as you did.”
“Instead,” said the clerk, “I only became the more involved. It began to look as though I was a partner in the infernal schemes, and she and those she worked with held the threat over my head to extort money from me.”
“Believe me, LeGrand, I didn't do that willingly,” interrupted Morocco Kate. “The others had a hold over me, and they forced me to use you as their tool. They bled me, as I, in turn, bled you. Oh, it was all a rotten game, and I'm glad the end's at hand. I suppose it's all up now?” she asked Blossom.
“The end is, as far as it concerns you and me,” he said. “I'm going to confess, and take my medicine. Minnie, I've lied to give this woman money to prevent her exposing me. Now I'm through. I've told my last lie, and given my last dollar. Thank God—who has been better to me than I deserve—thank God! I'm still young enough to make good the money I've lost. The lies I can't undo, but I can tell the truth. I'm going to confess everything!”
“Oh, LeGrand!” cried Minnie, and she held out her hands to him. “Not—not everything!”
“Yes, the whole rotten business. That's the only way to begin over again, and begin clean. I'll come through clean!”
“Oh!” murmured Minnie. “It will be so—so hard!”
“Yes,” and LeGrand gritted his teeth, “it isn't going to be easy; but it'll be a bed of roses compared to what I've been lying on the last year. This woman had such a hold on me that I couldn't clear myself before—that is, clear myself of grave charges. But now I can. This is the end. I can prove that I wasn't mixed up in the Roswell de luxe book case, and that's what she's been holding over me.”
“The Roswell case!” faltered Minnie.
“Yes, you don't know about it, but I'll tell you, later. Now I'm free. This is the end. I came here to-night to tell her so. How you happened to follow me I don't know.”