"Hold your tongue, you fool!" cried Madame Coralie, savagely.
"Prove your innocence," commanded Perry Toat, who looked puzzled.
"Lady Branwin," said Vail, still shrilly, "is not dead."
"Not dead?" Everyone looked bewildered.
Eddy stretched out his hand and pulled the veil from his wife's face. "This woman is Lady Branwin," he said, with a choking note in his voice.
"My mother--my mother!" cried Audrey, rising to her feet and grasping at Ralph for support.
[CHAPTER XXIV.]
ANOTHER PART OF THE TRUTH
It was indeed Lady Branwin who sat there, quiet and silent and immovable, gazing at the astonished company. Eddy, with a look of fear on his craven face, had sunk back into his chair the moment he had torn off the veil and had told the wonderful truth. The others could only stare and marvel at the revelation. Audrey, womanlike, was the first to recover the use of her tongue, although Perry Toat--also womanlike--was on the point of breaking into speech.
"Yes, you are my mother!" cried Audrey. "Yet I saw your face before at the Pink Shop. How was it I did not recognise you then?"