Cora sees that all is lost. But she recalls the promises of safety given her by Madeline, and nerves herself for a last attempt at cool insolence. Her quick wits have taken in the situation. Now she understands why Madeline has led Davlin on, and why her hatred of him is so intense. Now she knows the meaning of the words that last night seemed so mysterious: "Lucian Davlin is my lover, but I am his bitterest foe." Now, as she steps forward, the hate she feels shining in her eyes, and with a growing air of reckless bravado as she glances at him, Cora, too, is Lucian Davlin's bitter foe.
"Cora!" The name comes from the lips of John Arthur, almost in a cry.
But she never once glances toward him. She fixes her eyes upon Madeline's face and doggedly awaits her command.
"Tell us what you know of this man," Madeline says, pointing to Edward Percy: "and be brief."
Cora turns her eyes slowly upon the man. She surveys him with infinite insolence, and then she turns with wonderful coolness toward Ellen Arthur.
"Miss Arthur," she says, with a malicious gleam in her eyes, "this will interest you. I knew that man ten years ago. I was making my first venture out in the world, and it was a very bad one. I fell in love with his pretty face, and married him. Before long I discovered that matrimony was a mania of Mr. Percy's—by-the-by, he sailed under another name then. I found that he had another wife living; a woman he had married for her money. Well, being sensitive, I took offense, and after a little, I ran away from him, carrying with me the certificates of his two marriages, which I had taken some pains to get possession of. After that—"
Cora pauses suddenly and glances toward Madeline.
"After that you went to Europe. You may pass over the foreign tour, and take up the story five years later," subjoins Madeline, coldly.
"After that, I went to Europe," echoes Cora. "And five years later found me in Gotham."
"Be explicit now, please: no omissions," commands Madeline.