“You are already aware of my name,” he observed, after a brief pause. “Now that we have exchanged confidences in this manner, may I not know yours?”
“It is no secret, m’sieur,” she replied, looking into his face and smiling. “My name is Mariette Lepage.”
“Mariette Lepage!” he gasped, starting from his chair, and glaring at her in bewilderment.
“That, m’sieur, is my name,” she answered, opening her dark eyes widely in surprise at his strange and sudden attitude. “Surely it is not so very extraordinary that, in giving you, a stranger, an address at the Post Restante I should have used a name that was not my own?”
Chapter Fifteen.
Held in Bondage.
George Stratfield walked out of his hotel next morning his mind full of Mariette Lepage’s strange statements. Long and deeply he pondered over the curious situation, but could discern no solution of the intricate problem. That there was some deep mystery underlying the actions of this woman he could not fail to recognise, yet, try how he would, he nevertheless found himself regarding her with misgiving. Her coquettishness caused him grave suspicion. Although she had endeavoured to convince him of her friendliness towards Liane it was apparent from certain of her remarks that she had some ulterior motive in endeavouring to obtain from him the exact details of the tragedy. He felt confident that she was Liane’s enemy.
Was it not a cruel vagary of Fate that he should discover this unknown woman whom his father had designated as his wife, only to find her the bitterest foe of the woman he loved? This was the woman who, under his father’s eccentric will, was to be offered twenty thousand pounds to accept him as husband!