“I shall be obliged if you do so.”
The new-comer’s eyes narrowed, and a threatening expression overspread his rather vicious face.
“I want to know, Lord Stranleigh, and I have a right to ask, why you gave a hundred pounds to my wife.”
“To your wife?” echoed Stranleigh in amazement.
“Yes. I have made a memorandum of the numbers, and here they are—two fifty-pound notes. Bank of England. Do you deny having given them to her?”
“I gave two fifty-pound notes to a young lady, whose name, I understood, was Trevelyan—a name which I also bear. She informed me, and somehow I believed her, that her purse containing steamship ticket and money, had been lost or stolen.”
A wry smile twisted the lips of the alleged husband.
“Oh, that’s the story is it? Would you be surprised if the young lady in question denied that in toto?”
“I should not be astonished at anything,” replied his lordship, “if you are in possession of the actual bank-notes I gave to her.”
“She describes your having taken these flimsies from a number of others you carry in your pocket. Would you mind reading me the number of others you carry in your pocket. Would you mind reading me the number of the next note in your collection?”