"Please be clear, if you can't be brilliant."
"Why, I'm as clear as mud. Satan has found out that I am the rightful heiress of the Dubarry manor, and he wishes to make me his wife in order to become master of the estate," the girl explained.
Sybil raised her eyes in surprise, then dropped them again upon the license, and repeated:
"So Satan wishes to wed you."
"You bet. And I never could imagine why a gentleman of his cultivated tastes should want me for a wife."
"Did he ever happen to see that marriage license?"
"Oh, yes, he has seen it and studied it. He told me it was an important document, and advised me to take good care of it."
"Then that is probably the way in which he discovered your right to the Dubarry estate."
"To be sure it was; for from the time he first saw that paper, he began to treat me with more respect and attention. And I do believe that was also the reason why he came down to this place."
While the girl spoke, Sybil was thinking hard and fast. Was the gentleman brigand the husband of Rosa Blondelle? Had he deliberately murdered his wife that he might marry this young gipsy heiress of the great Dubarry manor? But the girl would not let the lady reflect in peace for many minutes. She suddenly broke out with—