"No good to leave that open! An icy wind comes through the passage to the cellar."
Lady Beltham turned in alarm toward her enigmatic companion.
"Why did you let it be supposed I was dead?"
"Why did you yourself leave here two days before the crime at the Cité Frochot?"
Lady Beltham hung her head and with a sob in her voice:
"I was deserted and jealous. Besides, I was enduring frightful remorse. The idea had come to me to write down the terrible secret which haunted my spirit, to give the story to some one I could trust, an attorney, and then——"
"Go on, pray!"
"And, then, what I had written suddenly vanished. It was after that I lost my head and fled. I had long been meaning to withdraw from the world. The Sisters of St. Clotilde offered to receive me in their house at Nogent."
Chaleck added brutally:
"That isn't all. You forgot to say you were afraid. Come, be frank, afraid of Gurn, of me!"