“Enough of that. Now comes the surprising part of the business. When I talked with the woman I saw she was much more refined than her position would indicate. She asked questions, too, and eager ones they were; questions about Samson Cereal, questions that aroused my suspicions.
“Then I turned the tables and she confided her story to me, at least the outlines of it. You could have knocked me down with a feather, I was so astonished. Of course, you have never even guessed her identity—how could you?”
“I don’t know. You mention Samson Cereal—a wife of his turned up last night; perhaps she is another,” carelessly.
“Claude, you wizard, go up head.”
“What! is it a fact?” demands the amazed Wycherley.
“As true as gospel. His first wife. He was divorced from her before he went abroad, and I have reason to believe she is the mother of this bold John Phœnix!”
CHAPTER XV.
HEARD AT THE SHERMAN TABLE-D’HÔTE.
No wonder Wycherley stops eating and looks at his companion in a dazed way. The announcement made by the other is of a nature to take his breath away. What sort of man can Samson Cereal be? It is quite enough, he thinks, to have one wife, who was supposed to be dead, turn up, but two of a kind—quite staggers him.
“Wait a moment, Aleck, until I collect my wits. Really, you have knocked them helter-skelter with such a remarkable assertion. There, now, go on with the circus. This woman, whom I had the good fortune to assist, was once the wife of the old speculator, you say.”