“Come,” she said, “it is not often that I give way. The only time I am ever afraid is when there is something which I do not understand. I do not understand Mr. Pritchard to-night. I know that he is my enemy. I cannot imagine why he should talk to you. He must have known that you would repeat all he said. It is not like him. Tell me, Mr. Tavernake, you have heard all sorts of things about me. Do you believe them? Do you believe—it's rather a horrible thing to ask, isn't it?” she went on hurriedly,—“do you believe that I made away with my husband?”
“You surely do not need to ask me that question,” Tavernake answered, fervently. “I should believe your word, whatever you told me. I should not believe that you could do anything wrong.”
Her hand touched his for a moment and he was repaid.
“Don't think too well of me,” she begged. “I don't want to disappoint you.”
Some one pushed open the swing doors and she started nervously. It was only a waiter who passed through into the bar.
“What I think of you,” Tavernake said slowly, “nothing could alter, but because I am stupid, I suppose, there is quite a good deal that I cannot understand. I cannot understand, for instance, why they should suspect you of having anything to do with your husband's disappearance. You can prove where you were when he left you?”
“Quite easily,” she answered, “only, unfortunately, no one seems to have seen him go. He timed his departure so cunningly that he apparently vanished into thin air. Even then,” she continued, “but for one thing I don't suppose that any one would have had suspicions. I dare say Mr. Pritchard told you that before we left New York my husband sold out some of his property and brought it over to Europe with him in cash. We had both determined that we would live abroad and have nothing more to do with America. It was not I who persuaded him to do this. It made no difference to me. If he had run away and left me, the courts would have given me money. If he had died and I had been a widow, he would have left me his property. But simply because there was all this money in our hands, and because he disappeared, his people and this man Pritchard suspect me.”
“It is wicked,” he muttered.
She turned slowly towards him.
“Mr. Tavernake,” she said, “do you know that you can help me very much indeed?”