“Please do.�
“I’m awfully obliged to you for not getting here an hour earlier. You might have been the ruin of two lives, if you had. Shall I begin with the best part first?�
“Yes.�
“Madge and I have found out that we are very much in love with each other. Madge is going to be a good girl, and I’m going to be a good fellow, and we are going to spend the fortune that J. Cephas Lynne left behind him, in bettering mankind generally, in doing good wherever we can, and in helping those who have taken the wrong path, to get back again to the right one.
“Yesterday—an hour ago, Carter—I was the master of millions; now, we two are the masters of millions which shall take the form of a great trust imposed upon us by the memory of Cephas Lynne and his daughter Edythe, to do good, to help the wrongdoer. Now, do you want the rest of the story?â€�
“I think I know it already. I suppose Red Mike came in upon you two while you were in each other’s arms, eh?�
“Well, we were getting there.�
The detective turned to Madge, who was blushing, and appearing very little like the Madge Babbington he had known.
“Are you sincere, Mrs. Babbington?� he asked.
“Ah, Mr. Carter, so sincere that I am the happiest woman alive; so sincere that I want you to forgive me for all the hard thoughts I have had in the past—and I want you to help me, too, by believing in me.â€�