"I am telling you the truth. I can prove every word I say. A dozen witnesses--officers of the ship, the doctor, the driver of the ambulance, Mrs. Gurthrie herself and her husband, Mr. Marks--all these can bear out what I say." She thought he would faint and reaching for the glass standing at her elbow placed the water to his lips. He drank it, still staring into her countenance with fixed gaze. "Do you understand?" she continued softly. "Don't you _see_ that I am not the woman you married, Mr. Ryder? I am forced to earn my living. This way of the stage was opened to me and my success tonight proves that I was right in accepting the chance offered." But, he was not listening. He did not hear her final words at all. All that he really heard was this query, repeated over and over again in his tortured brain: "_Who is my wife?_" CHAPTER XXIII IN THE MAZE Both the man and the woman were shocked into a sudden appreciation of the world outside that box-like dressing-room by a knock on the door. Miss Mont rose quickly, threw off the garment with which she had lightly covered her shoulders and slipped into a negligee which had been hanging in the corner. "Who's there?" she asked quietly. "Why, hullo!" and Sam Marks' broad face showed at the opening door. "Ain't you a long time getting dressed, Miss Mont? I got a taxi at the door---- Hullo!" He saw Ryder but did not at first recognize him. "Got a visitor? Scuse me----" "You may come in," said Miss Mont sternly. "You will recognize this gentleman." "Gee! Well, I wouldn't, hardly. What's the matter with him?" asked Marks, finally identifying Ryder. The manager looked anxious, and he kept very close to the door. Miss Mont watched him narrowly; but Ryder scarcely raised his eyes from the floor. "Mr. Marks," she said, "Mr. Ryder came here---- That is, he says that before we landed from the _Minnequago_ he sent me a letter to my stateroom. I did not receive it. You were hovering around me a good deal just then. Did you happen to see the letter?" "What--_me_? Why, I----" "Your face tells the truth if your lips cannot," she interrupted him sharply. "I see that you _did_ get my letter. Where is it?" Marks looked foolish; yet his pig-like eyes twinkled. He found the hardihood to say: "Well, I had to get your name on that contract and I wasn't going to risk this guy butting in. Guess you're glad now yourself. See the hand you got tonight? You're going to be a knock-out." "You scoundrel!" she said bitterly. "You do not know what you have done. You would not understand if I told you--you clod! Can you understand this much? Your stealing that letter----" "Oh, I say! that's rather thick, you know. I didn't steal it and I didn't destroy it. I just forgot to give it to you after taking it from the steward," and he grinned, bringing forth the still unopened letter from his pocket.