This reply was as near a shock to the famous detective as he, used to startling announcements, could have. He had not contemplated any such complication. But he promptly asked the next question:
“Did you know of that previous marriage?”
“Not until that afternoon.”
“What did you then learn?”
“I learned that Mr. Ellison had married, secretly, a young woman of great beauty who was a barmaid in England, but from whom he had been separated almost immediately; that, for a large sum of money, she had consented to consider the marriage annulled, and that for several years he had seen nothing of her.
“Very shortly after Mr. Ellison came to this country I made his acquaintance, and he began to come to Philadelphia quite frequently to see me.
“Our relations were quite intimate and he was a frequent visitor at my house and was on good terms with my husband.
“It seems that a brother of this girl lived in Philadelphia and one day met him on the street, recognizing him as the young fellow who had been married to his sister and who had paid a large sum to be free from that marriage.
“Just how Mr. Ellison became acquainted with a set of men of whom Mr. Lannigan was one, I don’t know, but he did, and, being fond of cards and gambling, he began to gamble with them. I have been told that he lost large sums of money to them, and that they hold his notes for sums to be paid when he was married to Miss Sanborn.
“This man, the brother of his former wife, while not of the party with whom he gambled, was yet in close relations with Lannigan, to whom he told his story. I had had a bitter quarrel with Mr. Ellison before I ever met Mr. Lannigan, or even knew there was such a person. It was not until some time after that that I even knew Mr. Lannigan was acquainted with Mr. Ellison. But I have come to know that Mr. Lannigan knew of my relation with Mr. Ellison.