"Yes, I am very wicked," said Lady Branwin, with a weary air. "And if you had lived my life you would have been wicked also--that is, if you could have endured such a life for so many years as I did. You needn't look so savage. Your child had a good home. I was sorry it was not a boy, but under the circumstances I adopted the baby when Flora brought it as my own, and Audrey cannot say but what I have been a good mother."
"You have been very kind," said the girl, in muffled tones, and hiding her tearful face on her husband's breast.
"You are a wicked woman!" repeated Colonel Ilse again, shrinking from her.
"And a murderess!" said Perry Toat, indignantly. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, turning on Eddy.
"I didn't know for certain," stammered the young man.
"No one knew," said Lady Branwin, who was much the calmest of the party. "I managed to keep my secret very well, and you should not have known it now but that I chose to admit the truth. I grew weary of Flora's blackmailing. For years and years she made my life a misery by threatening to tell Sir Joseph the truth. I took my diamonds to her on that night so as to pay a large bribe which she demanded. She said that the amount was not enough. In despair I sprang at her throat when she was threatening to go to Sir Joseph the next day and say to him that Audrey was not his daughter. I knew that Sir Joseph would turn my poor girl into the streets, as he had never loved her. I strangled Flora, and I am glad that I did so."
"But I wish to know," began Perry Toat, springing forward, "what--"
"You shall know no more. I go to do justice," and before anyone could move Lady Branwin was out of the room.
Perry Toat, crying out that she must be arrested, ran out of the office in pursuit. She arrived at the street door to see Lady Branwin disappear into the thick fog. All pursuit proved useless. The woman who had slain Madame Coralie vanished into the dense blackness of the fog, like the ghost she had long been supposed to be. Only there rang in Perry Toat's ears her concluding words: "I go to do justice!"
"What does she mean?" cried the detective, helplessly. "What does she mean?"