They were alone! Aynesworth threw down his hat and crossed the room until he was within a few feet of Wingrave.
“Well, sir?”
Aynesworth laughed a little unnaturally.
“I had to come,” he said. “It is humiliating, but the discipline is good for me! I was determined to come and see once more the man who has made an utter and complete fool of me.”
Wingrave eyed him coldly.
“If you would be good enough to explain,” he began.
“Oh, yes, I’ll explain,” Aynesworth answered. “I engaged myself to you as secretary, didn’t I, and I told you the reason at the time? I wanted to make a study of you. I wanted to trace the effect of your long period of isolation upon your subsequent actions. I entered upon my duties—how you must have smiled at me behind my back! Never was a man more completely and absolutely deceived. I lived with you, was always by your side, I was there professedly to study your actions and the method of them. And yet you found it a perfectly simple matter to hoodwink me whenever you chose!”
“In what respect?” Wingrave asked calmly.
“Every respect!” Aynesworth answered. “Let me tell you two things which happened to me yesterday. I met a young New York stockbroker, named Nesbitt, in London, and in common with all London, I suppose, by this time, I learnt the secret of all those anonymous contributions to the hospitals and other charitable causes during the last year.”
“Go on,” Wingrave said.