The whole scene came back on him, and a moisture sprang to his eyes.
“She is innocent,” he continued—“upon my sacred honour! Yes, yes, I know that the evidence is all against me, but I speak the absolute truth. You saw—that night, did you?”
She nodded.
“Ah, it is a pity—a pity. But, madame, as you are a true woman, believe what I say; for, I repeat, it is the truth.”
Then, with admirable reticence, even great delicacy, he told the story as Elise had told it, and as convincingly.
“I believe you, monsieur,” she said frankly, when he had done, and stretched out her hand to him with a sudden impulse of regard. “Now, follow up that unselfishness by another.”
He looked inquiringly at her.
“Give up this mad chase,” she added eagerly.
“Never!” was his instant reply. “Never!”
“I beg of you, I appeal to you-my friend,” she urged, with that ardour of the counsel who pleads a bad cause.