"Madame speaks hopefully of my dying. It would please her, perhaps?"
"No. What do you take me for? I never loved you as you wished to be loved; but if M. Aksakoff had not interfered, and we had married, I should have come to love you."
"You speak of what might have been."
"I suppose so. Circumstances are altered. Marriage is out of the question."
"Assuredly, and I am scarcely fit for a bridegroom."
"What is the matter with you?" asked Leah, anxiously.
Demetrius passed over the question. "Besides, Captain Strange informed me that your husband has returned. Madame was doubtless pleased at that marvellous resurrection, so cleverly managed."
"No," said Leah, honestly enough. "I was not; but circumstances made it imperative that Jim should return."
"And for me to travel in Siberia?"
"Blame M. Aksakoff, blame M. Aksakoff," she insisted. "I am innocent."