“I don’t wish you to perjure yourself,” I remarked coldly. “You ‘assure me’! What utter nonsense.”
“I tell you the truth.”
“You have told me so many falsehoods that a little truth is certainly refreshing!” I replied with sarcasm.
“I cannot force you to believe me,” she continued in a low voice, still steadying herself by the chair.
“Do you think me such a confounded idiot, then, as to believe you could have business with a strange man at that hour of the night?”
“Business, nevertheless, was the object of our meeting.”
“Bah! your excuses are positively intolerable. What was the nature of this business?”
“You must not know,” she replied, hesitatingly.
Her brows contracted, and her tiny hands clenched tightly upon the chair-back, as if summoning all her courage to be firm.
“Ah! the old story. More mystery. Look here! I’ve had enough of it!” I shouted in anger. “In fact, I’ve had too much of it already, and I demand an explanation, or you and I must part!”