"Too sure! Why, I have been studying the whole case these four years."
"As defendant?"
"Defendant, indeed! I wanted to make that girl my wife. Oh! you were quite a little thing then, a wee wee little lass, scarcely so big as my finger. You were learning to dance in those days and had not yet appeared upon the scene."
"And you deserted that girl on the eve of the wedding!"
"I had reasons for doing so, of which nobody, I fancy, is aware."
"They said at the time that you found out that Benjamin Hétfalusy, the girl's father, was over head and ears in debt, and that you withdrew for that reason."
"I did not take the trouble to contradict the rumour, it was so like General Vértessy to marry for money."
"And the Hétfalusy family became of course your bitterest enemies ever afterwards?"
"They have insulted, but they cannot wound me."
"And you forgave them for it?"