“Certainly. I saw him only a few days ago. He’s looking for Audley—he believes he is in Paris.”
“Now, I wonder if the Mr. Audley you know is the same man as my friend. Will you describe him?”
She did so, and the description made it clear that he was indeed Thelma’s husband.
“Yes,” I said. “He is no doubt the same.”
“He was well-known at the Ham-bone, where every one called him Stanley,” she said. “But I can’t think why he disappeared and has never written to me. A girl told me that he’d married. But I don’t believe it.”
“Why not?”
“For the simple reason that he had asked me to marry him,” was the startling reply.
“Was Ruthen on very friendly terms with him?”
“Yes. But Stanley did not like him. He used to tell me that Ruthen was not straight, and I know he avoided him whenever he could. I suppose we all hate most those we fear most.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked in some surprise at her philosophy.