Again he was silent.
"I cannot speak here," he said almost roughly. "You must come to my room."
She hesitated. There was something in his voice she did not like.
"Very well," she said, and followed him up the steep stairs.
Chapter XXXIII
"Now explain." His words were a command, his tone peremptory.
Jean, who knew men, and read them without error, realised that this was not a moment to temporise.
"I will explain to you, François, but I do not like the way you speak," she said. "It is not you I wish to compromise, but Madame Meredith."
"In this letter I wrote for you I said I was going away. I confessed to you that I had forged a cheque for five million francs. That is a very serious document, mademoiselle, to be in the possession of anybody but myself." He looked at her straight in the eyes and she met his gaze unflinchingly.