"Ah, what folly!" Madame Alpenny brushed away this defence with a gesture. "It was Mr. Evans who told you in that wood how he was your uncle----"
"He did not. I never met him while he was alive."
"_You say so----" began Madame, again, only to be cut short.
"Hold your tongue and listen," said Hench in a peremptory tone. "You are very clever and cunning, Madame, and have trapped me by means of that advertisement in the hopes that you can force me to marry your daughter. I absolutely decline to do so."
"Then I tell the policemen that you are a murderer," she retorted quickly. Hench laughed. "Oh no, you won't. You would have done that long ago, but that you wished to blackmail me. But I refuse to be blackmailed also. And you, Madame, will have to explain why you came down here to request my uncle to insert that advertisement, instead of writing to me openly. Stop"--Hench waved his hand, as she was about to speak--"I have no time to enter into details now. On another occasion we can speak."
Madame Alpenny looked at him sullenly, as she was unprepared for this defiance and saw the need of gaining time. "I will wait for one week and then come to you again," she said savagely. "But you marry Zara, or you hang!"
"I shall do neither," said Hench calmly, and turned on his heel with contempt.
"One week," called out the woman furiously; "in one week I come again!"