"And I knew nothing more until I found myself in a hospital over at St. Malo," I went on. "The drug orosin in small doses destroys the memory; in large doses it produces an effect of death, and in still larger ones--like that administered to your friend the Anglo-Spanish girl Miss Engledue--causes instant death, with no symptoms that the post-mortem can distinguish other than the natural cause of sudden heart failure." "Was I given the drug deliberately?" asked Gabrielle, looking at me with her wonderful wide-open eyes--eyes so different from those dulled fixed ones which I had seen in the Duomo in old Florence, when she had raised herself from praying in her half-demented state while the sinister Italian doctor stood behind her. "Yes," I said. "De Gex passed his coffee cup to you, smiling and without compunction, well knowing the effect it must have upon you, at the same time his intention being to kill your friend Miss Engledue by administering a stronger dose. This must have been accomplished by the infection of some wound or slight abrasion of the skin so that the drug should be introduced directly into the system and not by the mouth. Such a method would cause almost instant death." "But did Gabrielle Engledue die?" she asked excitedly. "Yes. She did. And by her death De Gex inherits the fortune of her father, a rich Spaniard, the Conde de Chamartin." She looked at me utterly bewildered, and well the poor girl might be. She now realized that she had been the victim of an amazing plot conceived by a master criminal, who was at the same time immensely wealthy, yet who cared nothing for human life so long as he amassed a colossal fortune. "All this, Mr. Garfield, is most astounding!" she declared, gazing with bewilderment around the room. "It seems incredible!" "Yes, Miss Tennison, I know it does," I replied. "But have patience, and I will prove to you the true depth of the villainy of our mutual enemy and his well-paid sycophants." Then, of a sudden, I grasped her soft hand in mine and for a few seconds held it. I looked steadily into her wonderful eyes, and then slowly I raised her hand to my lips and kissed it. "Gabrielle," I whispered, bending to her in deep earnestness. "My triumph over your enemies is yours--_yours_! Wait, and I will reveal to you the whole facts--facts more astounding than have ever been conceived in the most sensational pages of modern fiction." She did not withdraw her hand, and by her inert attitude, I realized with indescribable joy that she really reciprocated my love! I am not an emotional man, neither am I an ideal lover. I am only a mere man-of-the-world. Hence perhaps the reader will forgive me if I fail to describe all the ecstasy of affection which I experienced at that moment. I loved Gabrielle Tennison with all my soul, and I now knew that she loved me. That surely was all-sufficient!