“Listen to me, Josine. If you don’t, this very instant, make a clean breast of it and tell me the whole story of this business and all the secret machinations which complicate it, I’m going to treat you as my mortal enemy. I’m going to take you out of this house, by force if I have to, to the nearest police station and denounce you as the accomplice of Leonard in the murder of Bridget Rousselin. Then you can get out of it as best you can. Are you going to tell me, or are you not?”
CHAPTER VIII.
TWO WILLS
War was declared, and at the moment chosen by Ralph, a moment at which all the circumstances were in his favor, and Josephine, taken by surprise, weakened before an onslaught of a violence and implacability she had never looked for.
It must not, however, be supposed that a woman of her stamp was going to accept defeat without a struggle. She tried to resist. She would not admit that a tender and charming lover like Ralph d’Andresy could, at a single stroke, stand forth as her master and impose on her the harsh constraint of his will. She had recourse to wheedling, then to tears and promises, to all a woman’s wiles. He showed himself inexorable.
“Will you speak!” he roared. “I’ve had enough of this obscurity. You may take a delight in it. I don’t. I like things perfectly clear.”
“What things do you want me to throw light on?” she cried, exasperated. “My life?”
“Your life is your own affair,” replied Ralph. “Keep your past dark, if you’re afraid to unfold it before my eyes. I’m perfectly well aware that you will always be an enigma to me and everyone else, and that your innocent face will never throw any light on what is going on at the bottom of your soul. But what I want to know is that side of your life which touches mine. We have a common end in view. Let me know the path you are following. If you don’t, I run the risk of getting mixed up in some abominable crime, and that’s the last thing I want.”
He hammered his right fist into his left palm.
“Get that clear, Josine! I will not murder! Rob? Yes. Burgle? Yes. But murder? No! A thousand times no!”
“I don’t wish to murder, either,” she protested.