‘To that meeting I shall bring with me a lawyer, in order to make sure that my interests are properly represented. As your wife, I am entitled to a certain definite proportion of your income. It will be my lawyer’s business to ascertain in the first place the amount of your income; and in the second, to what share of it I am entitled.’
‘As you please.’
There was silence for a few moments, then she said: ‘Oscar Boyd, have you asked yourself why I have come so many thousands of miles, and put myself to so much trouble and expense, in order to find you?’
‘You wanted money, and you had been told that I was a rich man.’
She clapped her hands, and laughed shrilly. ‘Vous avez raison, Monsieur. I compliment you on your penetration. You were not so simple-minded as to believe that it was love—love for yourself alone, cher Oscar—that induced me to cross that horrible ocean?’
‘No; I was not so simple-minded as to believe that.’
‘But what a disappointment for poor me to find you changed from a rich man into a poor one! And yet, hard-hearted one that you are, I don’t believe you pity me a bit. Still, life may be endurable without pity; and when you grow to be a rich man again, which you will do in a few years, you will not forget that you have a wife who will want to share your good fortune.’
As before, his only answer was to look at his watch.
‘Oh, pray be careful that we do not lose our train,’ she said with a contemptuous laugh. Then her mood changed. She got up and began to pace the room with her hands behind her back. ‘O yes, I love you, Oscar Boyd,’ she exclaimed with passionate vehemence; ‘just as dearly as you love me—no more, and no less! It was well that you did not attempt to kiss me when we met, or even to put your arm round my waist. Had you done so, I should have struck you. I hate you, voyez vous, as you hate me; but I have one consolation which will never leave me: I have separated you from the woman you love—from the woman who loves you! Oh, it is sweet, sweet!—Is there no champagne to be had in this house?’
It was an odd climax to her passionate outburst. But before another word could be said, there came a tap at the door, and a servant entered with a note on a salver, which he presented to Mr Boyd.