"I swear it!"
There was another short pause, then Leith threw out his hand deprecatingly.
"All right," he exclaimed. "There is my card with my address. Come there tomorrow at twelve and I will give you the five thousand. And now, go back to the drawing-room and I will follow you as quickly as possible so as not to attract attention."
The Mexican left the room without another word, and feeling old and stiff, Carlita crept away from her position beside the door.
She had seen Leith's head bowed upon his arms which rested upon the desk, and somehow there was a great lump in her throat which she felt would burst into hysterical sobbing if she stood there watching him.
The last doubt was gone now, but there was no triumph in the convincing proof of his guilt.
She went out upon a little side balcony and stood there with the cold night air blowing upon her heated face. She never knew how long she stayed there, but she was aroused at last by a mild flood of tears that came pouring uncontrollably from her eyes and hearing her own voice in her ears sounding strange and eerie to her strained senses:
"My God—my God! if it were only I who had died—if it were only I!"