"Listen," said the other, with a taunting laugh, "you'll be white enough before I've done with you. Do you see this," and she laid her finger on her lips; "do you see this scar? Krill did that." Sylvia noticed that she did not speak of Krill as her father this time; "he pinned my lips together when I was a child with that opal serpent."
"I know," replied Sylvia, shuddering, "it was cruel. I heard about it from the detective and—"
"I don't wish for your sympathy. I was a girl of fifteen when that was done, and I will carry the scar to my grave. Child as I was then, I vowed revenge—"
"On your father," said Sylvia, contemptuously.
"Krill is not my father," said Maud, changing front all at once; "he is yours, but not mine. My father is Captain Jessop. I have known this for years. Captain Jessop told me I was his daughter. My mother thought that my father was drowned at sea, and so married Krill, who was a traveller in jewellery. He and my mother rented 'The Red Pig' at Christchurch, and for years they led an unhappy life."
"Oh," gasped Sylvia, "you confess. I'll tell Paul."
"You'll tell no one," retorted the other woman sharply. "Do you think I would speak so openly in order that you might tell all the world with your gabbling tongue? Yes, and I'll speak more openly still before I leave. Lady Rachel Sandal did not commit suicide as my mother said. She was strangled, and by me."
Sylvia clapped her hands to her face with a scream. "By you?"
"Yes. She had a beautiful brooch. I wanted it. I was put to bed by my mother, and kept thinking of the brooch. My mother was down the stairs attending to your drunken father. I stole to Lady Rachel's room and found her asleep. I tried to take the brooch from her breast. She woke and caught at my hand. But I tore away the brooch and before Lady Rachel could scream, I twisted the silk handkerchief she wore, which was already round her throat, tighter. I am strong—I was always strong, even as a girl of fifteen. She was weak from exhaustion, so she soon died. My mother came into the room and saw what I had done. She was terrified, and made me go back to bed. Then she tied Lady Rachel by the silk handkerchief to the bedpost, so that it might be thought she had committed suicide. My mother then came back to me and took the brooch, telling me I might be hanged, if it was found on me. I was afraid, being only a girl, and gave up the brooch. Then Captain Jessop raised the alarm. I and my mother went downstairs, and my mother dropped the brooch on the floor, so that it might be supposed Lady Rachel had lost it there. Captain Jessop ran out. I wanted to give the alarm, and tell the neighbors that Krill had done it—for I knew then he was not my father, and I saw, moreover, how unhappy he made my mother. He caught me," said Maud, with a fierce look, "and bound a handkerchief across my mouth. I got free and screamed. Then he bound me hand and foot, and pinned my lips together with the brooch which he picked off the floor. My mother fought for me, but he knocked her down. Then he fled, and after a long time Jessop came in. He removed the brooch from my mouth and unbound me. I was put to bed, and Jessop revived my mother. Then came the inquest, and it was thought that Lady Rachel had committed suicide. But she did not," cried Maud, exultingly, and with a cruel light in her eyes, "I killed her—I—"
"Oh," moaned Sylvia, backing against the wall with widely open eyes; "don't tell me more—what horrors!"