'Good heavens, what can this mean?' cried Martin Gurwood, after Statham had read aloud the words of the note.
'Mean!' said Statham. 'There is one portion of it, at all events, which is sufficiently intelligible. "I know my exact position now;" she has learned what we have been so long endeavouring to hide from her! She knows the exact relation in which she stood with Mr. Calverley.'
'Merciful powers, do you think so?' cried Martin.
'What other meaning could that phrase convey?' said Humphrey Statham. 'I myself have no doubt of it, and I think Madame Du Tertre is of my opinion; are you not, madame?'
'I am, indeed,' said Pauline.
'But where can Alice have learned the secret?' said Martin; 'who can have told it to her?'
'I have no doubt on that point either,' said Pauline; 'it must have been told to her by Mr. Wetter.'
'Wetter!' cried Martin and Humphrey both at the same time.
'Mr. Henrich Wetter,' repeated Pauline. 'It was he who beguiled me into the City upon a false pretence, and on my return home I learned from the servant that he had been at the house during my absence, and had a long interview with her mistress. Then I recognised at once that I had been gotten out of the way for this very purpose.'
'Your suspicions of this man seem to have been just,' said Martin, turning to Humphrey Statham, and speaking slowly, 'though they did not point in that direction.'