“Very well, chief, I accept your version.”
“Yet you say that she is married.”
“Yes; there is no doubt of it.”
“But you suggest that the man she has married is a criminal.”
“He is one.”
“Then I do not believe——”
“Wait, chief.”
“Well?”
“Suppose that the man was not always a criminal? Suppose that once upon a time he bore a splendid name, and was in line to succeed to a title? Suppose——”
The chief half started from his chair, then sank back again into its depths.