“I was.”
“And their sway has ceased?”
“It has ceased.”
“Since when?”
“Since the receipt of this.”
She took from her pocket the crumpled note, and held it out to him.
He read it with his face blanching.
“Then it was you!” he gasped, with a recoil of horror.
“It was a blow in my defence,” she said, with a glance full of meaning. “It would not become me to save myself at the expense of the one who dealt it.”
His eyes flashed, but she looked at him steadily. “Do you know who struck that blow?” he asked.