‘If you will permit me,’ said Gavrolles, now thoroughly master of the situation, ‘I will explain; but bear in mind, monsieur, you have forced this avowal upon me by your brutal English violence. Otherwise, I should never have spoken. You have been good enough, Monsieur Sutherland, to say that I am a liar. Au contraire, I do not lie. When we first met, I said the young lady in my company was my wife. It was the truth. A little while ago, I said there was no such person as Mrs. Forster. It was the truth. Why? do you ask. Because a lady cannot bear the name of a second husband, when her first husband is alive.’
There was no mistaking the supreme assurance of the man; he spoke with the strength of a settled conviction. Sutherland looked at him in amaze, as the full horror of the situation dawned upon his bewildered mind.
‘You thought me a commonplace seducer,’ continued the Frenchman, loftily; ‘on the contrary, I am an artiste and a man of honour. I took that lady in honourable marriage. Afterwards, a cruel series of events drew us asunder, that was all.’
‘You deserted her,’ cried Sutherland. ‘You left her to starve or die!’
‘Unfortunately, we did not agree; she was violent, and I—I will confess it—I was violent too. Eh bien! At the time of which I speak I was heavily in debt, and had to escape my creditors. I asked her to accompany me, and she refused. A brief separation was necessary. Alas! Little did I dream that in so short a space of time she would forget her lawful husband, and contract a bigamous union with another man.’
He paused a moment, then he concluded—
‘Now, monsieur, the champion of madame, I hope you are satisfied. In any case, there is the door.’
As he spoke he sat down in his chair beside the fire as if intimating that the interview had come to an end.
Sutherland stood perplexed, and watched him for some moments in silence. Then putting on his hat, he said in a low voice—
‘Your tale is plausible, but I do not believe it. In any case you proclaim yourself a scoundrel. If it were not for your victim’s sake, for the fear of creating a scandal, I think I should carry out my promise, and thrash you. However, I shall postpone your punishment for the present. But remember, if the lady we have been discussing comes to grief through your malignity, if these calumnies grow, and any evil happens to her through them or you, you will have to settle accounts with me!’