“I did not know that you even knew him.”
“Ah, I know him well.”
“Well, then, have you brought the certificates?” she asked keenly.
“Which certificates?”
“Which? You ask that? Surely, surely, you know that a certificate of marriage and one of birth were found in the flat by a Miss L’Estrange?”
“No, I didn’t know. How could I know?”
“But am I in a dream? I have made sure that it was upon some knowledge of them that you relied when you wrote in the unsigned note, ‘It is now a pretty certain thing that your sister was a duly wedded wife.’” And she looked at David’s letter again.
“No, I had other grounds. I needn’t tell you what, since they are not yet certain—other grounds. I have not heard yet of any certificates—”
“Well, God help me, then!” she murmured, half-crying. “What, then, does Mr. Harcourt mean? He says in the note of this morning: ‘Mr. Harcourt has not been able to secure the certificates, but believes that Miss Mordaunt’s fiancé, Mr. Van Hupfeldt, may be in a position to give her some information on the subject.’ What does that mean when you never even heard of the certificates?”
Van Hupfeldt, looking squarely now at her, said: “It means nothing at all. You may take it from me that no certificates have been found.”