“With Nora I had a pleasant, careless life, until about two years ago I met the Major, unknown to Nora, and afterwards became on friendly terms with a young man, an officer in the guards, who was his friend. Tattersett won a large sum from him at cards; and then I saw, to my dismay, that he had been attracted only by the mild flirtation I had carried on with him, and that he had played in order to please me. The Major increased my dismay by telling me that this young man was the son of a certain woman who was his bitterest enemy—the Italian woman called La Gioia—and that she would seek a terrible revenge upon us both. This was to frighten me. My life having been spent in the convent, I knew very little of the ways of the world, yet I soon saw sufficient of both to know that Tattersett was an expert forger, and that his accomplice Graham was a clever continental thief whom the police had long been wanting. How I called at the house in Queen’s-gate Gardens, and afterwards lost control over my own actions, I have already explained. The motive of our marriage is an absolute enigma.”
She stood before me white-faced and rigid.
“It is fortunate that Graham is here. Shall we seek the truth from him?” I asked.
“Yes,” she responded. “Demand from him the reason of our mysterious union.”
La Gioia touched the bell, gave an order to the servant, and, after a few moments of dead silence, Graham stood in the doorway.
Chapter Thirty One.
Conclusion.
“You!” gasped the man, halting quickly in alarm.