Roma actually laughed out softly and triumphantly, saying:
"I have just told my dear husband that I do not feel like dying at all, and that love and happiness have given me a new elixir of life."
Edmund Clarke would have spared exposing her if it had been really her dying hour, but he saw that she had grossly deceived Devereaux, so he returned, with bitter sarcasm:
"As you feel so strong and happy, I have some exciting news to break to you."
"News, papa?" sweetly.
"Do not call me papa," he answered bitterly. "You know well that I am not related to you, and that your discovery of the truth has caused you to attempt the most heinous crimes to keep my real daughter from coming into her birthright. I am here to tell you that your plot to kill Doctor Jay and myself has been discovered. Your attempted murder of Liane Lester came near success, but, happily, she has revived, and Granny Jenks, your wicked grandmother, has confessed that you were substituted in her place, and that Liane is my own child!"
"Heavens!" cried Devereaux, his arms falling from around Roma; but she clung to him, exclaiming passionately:
"I am your wife! No matter what he charges, I am your wife; do not forget that, Jesse!"
"And no doubt you pretended that you had swallowed poison, just to entrap him in your toils!" cried Edmund Clarke scornfully, while Devereaux, looking at her as she clung to him, exclaimed: