“I did not know that until after marriage. Whether it would have changed my course if I had, I don’t know. His family is very aristocratic, and I was a poor girl, of humble origin, working for wages on the stage. “We were happy in our life together, but our marriage separated him from his family. He was independent in having a small competence, and a share in the income of a large estate, held in trust, his for life and to be his children’s after him, if he had them, which, by the way, he had not. “I was telegraphed for, and reached him in time to have him die in my arms, but he never recognized me. “When he was dead I found that he had left his own small fortune to me, but his share in the income of the estate did not become mine. “I have been advised that I have a right to it, but to get it would mean a lawsuit, and I am comfortable and in plenty without it. “Now, then; at the time of my marriage there was a man, Eric Masson, moving in the same club and social circle with my husband, who, while pretending to be on friendly terms with him, was his bitter enemy. “He wanted to marry me. From the first I had disliked him. It was not indifference to him; it was positive dislike for him on my part. “I had rejected him before I met Mr. Constant. When he learned that Mr. Constant was attentive to me, and that I was likely to marry, Masson warned me not to do it, saying it would be well for neither Albert nor myself. “He circulated stories as to myself, which had much to do with my husband’s family’s opposition, and one of them reaching my husband’s ears, who was then my _fiancée_, resulted in a violent quarrel between the two, ending in Albert giving Masson a thrashing. “Though the differences were afterward healed, I know that he worked to my husband’s injury always. “Masson was one of the party with whom my husband dined on his last day. “My husband had not been dead two months when he renewed his attentions to me, declaring that he had been waiting for Albert’s death to step into his shoes. “I drove him away from me angrily, telling him that I loved the memory of my husband too well to insult it by taking Masson as his successor. “Since then he has been my vindictive enemy, making trouble for me when and where he could, starting scandals as to myself. “He tried to take my kennel of dogs from me, declaring that Albert had sold them to him on the day of his death. “He began a suit at law to obtain the dogs, going so far as to intrigue to get me to hire some creatures of his about the kennel, so that they might steal the dogs for him. “In short, I have been persecuted by him ever since my husband’s death. He is the only enemy in life that I have, and I know he is at the bottom of the poisoning of my dogs.” “I suppose,” said Nick, “that this Eric Masson is the broker of that name—the yachtsman?” “The same person,” replied Mrs. Constant. “Are you prepared to tell me the nature of his persecutions of you?” “Yes; at any time.”