“None—I assure you. But why do you ask such a question? You puzzle me.”
“Not more than you puzzle me, Mr. De Gex,” I replied with pique. “It would be so much easier if you would be frank and open with me.”
“My dear sir, you seem to me to have a bee in your bonnet about something or other. Tell me, now, what is it?”
“Simply that you know me very well, but you deny it. You never thought that I should make this unwelcome reappearance.”
“Your appearance here as a mad-brained person is certainly unwelcome,” he retorted. “You first tell me that you visited me at Stretton Street. Well, you may have been in the servants’ quarters for all I know, and——”
“Please do not be insulting!” I cried angrily.
“I have no intention of offering you an insult, sir, but your attitude is so very extraordinary! You speak of a girl named Engledue—that was the name, I think—and allege that she is my niece. Why?”
“Because the young lady is dead—she died under most suspicious circumstances. And you know all about it!” I said bluntly.
“Oh! perhaps you will allege that I am a murderer next!” he laughed, as though enjoying the joke.
“It is no laughing matter!” I cried in fury.