"I nursed him back to life. Through a part of his convalescence. A woman _knows_ certain things. He almost loved me then. If we could have been alone he would have found out--asked me to marry him. We should be married to-day. If I could have seen him constantly in London it would have been the same." She burst out violently: "I believe you wrote to him to come to Paris." "My dear Gora! Keep your imagination for your fiction. I had forgotten his existence until I saw him, for a few seconds, at a reception. Don't forget that he came to Paris under orders from his Government." "But you recognized him that night. You came down here to meet him, to get away from me." "Far from coming here to meet him I had given up all hope of ever seeing him again. He found out my address and followed me. You also seem to forget that you never mentioned his name to me in Paris. How was I to know that you were still interested in him?" "That first night ... you guessed it ... you threw down a sort of challenge. Deny that if you can!" "No! I'll not deny it. I wanted him as badly as you did if with less reason. Nevertheless ... believe it or not as you like ... I came down here as much to leave the field clear to you as for my own peace of mind. I think ... I fancy ... I decided to leave the matter on the knees of the gods." "Do you mean to tell me that if I had met him while we were together in Paris, and you knew the truth, that you would not have tried to win him away from me?" "I wonder! I have asked myself that question several times. I like to think that I should have been noble, and withdrawn. But I am not at all sure.... Yes, I do believe I should, not from noble unselfishness, oh, not by a long sight, but from pride--if I saw that he was really in love with you. I'd never descend to scheming and plotting and pitting my fascinations against another woman--" "Oh, damn your aristocratic highfalutin pride. I suppose you mean that I have no such pride, having no inherited right to it. Perhaps not or I wouldn't be here to-day. At least I wouldn't be talking to you," she added, her voice hoarse with significance. Once more Alexina eyed the muff. "Did you come here to kill me?" "Yes, I did. No, I haven't a pistol. I couldn't get one. I trusted to opportunity. When I saw you standing at the edge of that hole I thought I had it." Alexina found it impossible to repress a shiver but in spite of those dreadful eyes she felt no recurrence of fear. "What good would that have done you? Murderesses get short shrift in France. There is none of that sickening sentimentalism here that we are cursed with in our country."