"What?" she cried. "Is your memory so defective that you do not recollect your transactions with those who waited upon you--those who kept the previous appointments of which you have spoken?" "I assure you, madam," I said, quite calmly, "I have not the least idea of what you mean." "Mr Heaton!" she cried. "Have you really taken leave of your senses? Is it actually true what your butler has said of you--that on the day you left Denbury you behaved like a madman?" "I am no madman!" I cried with considerable warmth. "The truth is that I remember nothing since one evening, nearly six years ago, when I was smoking with--with a friend--in Chelsea, until that day to which my servant has referred." "You remember nothing? That is most extraordinary." "If strange to you, madam, how much more strange to me? I have told you the truth, therefore kindly proceed to explain the object of these previous visits of persons you have apparently sent to me." "I really think that you must be joking," she said. "It seems impossible that you should actually be unaware." "I tell you that I have no knowledge whatsoever of their business with me." "Then if such is really the case, let me explain," she said. "First, I think you will admit that your financial transactions with our Government have brought you very handsome profits." "I am not aware of having had any transactions with the British Government," I answered. "I refer to that of Bulgaria," she explained. "Surely you are aware that through my intermediary you have obtained great concessions--the docks at Varna, the electric trams at Sofia, the railway from Timova to the Servian frontier, not to mention other great undertakings which have been floated as companies, all of which are now earning handsome profits. You cannot be ignorant of that!" I remembered that Gedge had shown me some official parchment which he had explained were concessions obtained from Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria. That this woman had been the means of securing to me the greater part of the enormous profits which I had apparently made within the past five years was certainly surprising. "On the day I recovered consciousness--the day of my departure from Denbury--I was shown some documents, but took but little heed of them," I said. "You admit, however, that the employment of British capital in Bulgaria has realised a very handsome profit, and that the greater part of it has gone into your own pockets?" "I suppose that is so," I responded. "Is it to you that I am indebted for those concessions?" "Certainly." "Are you, then, an ambassadress of the Principality of Bulgaria?" "Well, yes--if you choose to put it so." "Then, as I understand, it is with some further financial object that you have sought me this evening?" "Exactly."