Suddenly shattered by the strain of her prolonged effort of resistance, she lay bent in two and, with her head in her hands, her shoulders shaken with convulsive sobs, she wept.
Lupin looked for long seconds at this weak and listless creature, so pitifully helpless. And he would have liked to stop, to cease the torturing questions which he was inflicting upon her. But was it not to save her that he was acting as he did? And, to save her, was it not necessary that he should know the truth, however painful?
He resumed:
"Why that forgery?"
"It was my husband," she stammered, "it was my husband who did it. With his fortune, he could do everything; and he bribed a junior clerk to have the Christian name of the second child altered for him on the register."
"The Christian name and the sex," said Lupin.
"Yes," she said.
"Then," he continued, "I am not mistaken: the original Christian name, the real one, was Dolores?"
"Yes."
"But why did your husband . . . ?"