“I am glad to know that,” the man cried, “and now I will make quick work of this business.”

He turned and left the room with a quick step, and going directly below entered the drawing-room, just as Mrs. Montague was rudely taunting Ray about Mona.

The young girl gathered up the various articles of clothing and followed him, and we know what occurred after that.

CHAPTER XX.

MRS. MONTAGUE EXPLAINS.

It would be difficult to describe the abject distress of the wretched woman, whose career of duplicity and crime had been so unexpectedly revealed and cut short.

She was the picture of despair, as she sat crouching in the depths of her luxurious chair, her figure bowed and trembling, her face hidden in her hands.

There was a silence for a moment after Mr. Amos Palmer left the room; then Mr. Rider, who had been curiously studying his prisoner while the gentleman was speaking, remarked: 

“It is the greatest mystery to me, madame, how, with the large fortune which you have had at your disposal, you could have wished to carry on such a dangerous business.  What could have been your object?  Surely not the need of money, nor yet the desire for jewels, since you have means enough to purchase all you might wish, and you tried to sell those you stole.  One would almost suppose that it was a sort of monomania with you.”

“No, it was not monomania,” Mrs. Montague cried, as she started up with sudden anger and defiance; “it was absolute need.”

“Really, now,” Mr. Rider remarked, regarding her with a peculiar smile, “I should just like to know, as a matter of curiosity, how much it takes to relieve you from absolute need.  I have supposed that you were one of the richest women in New York.”

Mrs. Montague flushed a sudden crimson, and darted a quick, half-guilty look at Mr. Corbin.  Then she turned again to the detective.

“Did you?—­and so did others, I suppose!” she cried, with a short, scornful laugh.  “Well, then, let me tell you that until I set my wits at work my income was only about twenty-five hundred dollars a year; and what was that paltry sum to a woman with my tastes?

“I do not care who knows now,” she went on, with increasing excitement; “I have been humiliated to the lowest degree, and I shall glory in telling you how a woman has managed to outwit keen business men, sharp detectives, and clever police.  In the first place, those crescents were presented to me at the time of my marriage.  They are, as you have doubtless observed, wonderful jewels—­as nearly flawless as it is possible to find diamonds.  When I went to Chicago I was poor, for I had been extravagant that year and overdrawn my income.  Money I must have—­money I would have; and then it was that I attempted, for the first time, to carry out a scheme which I had planned while I was abroad the previous year.  I had ordered a widow’s outfit to be made, and padded in a way to entirely change my figure.  I also purchased that red wig.  While in Paris I learned the art of changing the expression of my face, by the skillful use of pencils and paint, and thus, dressed in my mourning costume with my eyebrows and lashes tinged to match my false hair, no one would ever have recognized me as Mrs. Montague.