Helen paid no heed to the interruption.
"So I began to look around for myself. You know the rest."
"There's no use going back to that." Elijah spoke impatiently.
"Yes there is use," Helen persisted. "You have done wrong and you know it. You're trying to square yourself by finding fault with me. It's no use. The farther you go, the worse off you are. The long and short of it is, you can't throw dust in your own eyes."
"I'm not trying to throw dust in my own eyes." The very vehemence of his denial gave the lie to his words.
"You are trying to, and you can't. Nothing can blind your eyes to the fact that you are a criminal."
Elijah's eyes were blazing through their narrowed lids.
"I won't allow even you to say such things to me."
"If you would only say them to yourself, it wouldn't be necessary. I hate to say it, Elijah, but,—you took fifty thousand dollars of the company's money. That's embezzlement. It's a crime." Helen voiced her long suppressed suspicion. "You smoothed it over by putting in its place your note for the amount, secured by your stock in the company."
"Have you been through my private papers?" Elijah burst out.