“It is necessary that I explain to all of you,” she said falteringly. “For a little while I have hoped that the necessity for it might be escaped; but now I see that it is essential.”
“No, no, Nan, it is not essential. It need not be,” said Nick Carter.
“Yes it is,” she replied. “Let me have my way about it.”
“Very well. Proceed.”
Again Nan hesitated. Then, before she spoke, she half turned about and opened her arms toward Lenore. When Lenore hesitated, she said:
“Come here, dear. I want you near me when I speak, for you, above all others, must believe what I will tell you now. Come, dear.”
Slowly Lenore moved forward. She seemed to sense the truth of what was coming, and a dark scowl crossed the face of Jimmy Duryea. Had it not been for the gag in his mouth, he doubtless would have interrupted them, then; but he could not speak, and nobody offered to relieve him of the impediment to speech.
“You must hear all of the truth, now, all of you,” said Nan, then, with one arm tightly around the quivering form of Lenore Remsen; “and in order to explain the circumstance that Mrs. Remsen had asked about, it is necessary that I should tell other things, first.
“That man there”—she pointed an accusing finger at Jimmy—“told a great deal that was true, when he talked to you a little while ago, accusing me; but he did not tell all the truth about one part of it, and he told much less than the truth about another part of it.