“Isn’t it true, Mrs. Richards, that those conditions were the result of his marriage to you? Didn’t your father, a very rich man, resent your marriage so deeply that he tried to ruin your husband in order to force you to leave him?”
There were tears in the woman’s eyes as she nodded her head in answer.
“Thank you. I know this is very painful–but I must really do all this. You refused to leave your husband, however, and when he decided to go to Alaska, you went with him?
“And there he made a lucky strike, some four or five years ago, that made him far richer than he had ever dreamed of becoming?”
“That is quite true.”
“But, although you were rich, you did not come home? You spent a good deal of time in the Far North, and when you went out for a rest, you came no further east than Seattle or San Francisco?”
“There was no reason for us to come here. All our friends had turned against us in our misfortunes, and our only child was dead. So it was only a few months ago that we came home.”
“That is very tragic. Thank you, Mrs. Richards. One moment–I have another question to ask.”
He stepped toward the gangplank.
“I will be back in a moment,” he said.