“You ran a risk.”

“I had to.”

“But why?  What on earth was your object—­you to do a thing like that!” Mortimer pointed reproachfully at the plate which lay before him on the table.

“I could devise no other means.  I thought and thought, but there was no alternate except a hideous public scandal, and a private sorrow which would have clouded our lives.  I acted for the best, incredible as it may seem to you, and I only ask your attention to enable me to prove it.”

“I will hear what you have to say before I take any further steps,” said Mortimer, grimly.

“I am determined to hold back nothing, and to take you both completely into my confidence.  I will leave it to your own generosity how far you will use the facts with which I supply you.”

“We have the essential facts already.”

“And yet you understand nothing.  Let me go back to what passed a few weeks ago, and I will make it all clear to you.  Believe me that what I say is the absolute and exact truth.

“You have met the person who calls himself Captain Wilson.  I say `calls himself’ because I have reason now to believe that it is not his correct name.  It would take me too long if I were to describe all the means by which he obtained an introduction to me and ingratiated himself into my friendship and the affection of my daughter.  He brought letters from foreign colleagues which compelled me to show him some attention.  And then, by his own attainments, which are considerable, he succeeded in making himself a very welcome visitor at my rooms.  When I learned that my daughter’s affections had been gained by him, I may have thought it premature, but I certainly was not surprised, for he had a charm of manner and of conversation which would have made him conspicuous in any society.

“He was much interested in Oriental antiquities, and his knowledge of the subject justified his interest.  Often when he spent the evening with us he would ask permission to go down into the museum and have an opportunity of privately inspecting the various specimens.  You can imagine that I, as an enthusiast, was in sympathy with such a request, and that I felt no surprise at the constancy of his visits.  After his actual engagement to Elise, there was hardly an evening which he did not pass with us, and an hour or two were generally devoted to the museum.  He had the free run of the place, and when I have been away for the evening I had no objection to his doing whatever he wished here.  This state of things was only terminated by the fact of my resignation of my official duties and my retirement to Norwood, where I hoped to have the leisure to write a considerable work which I had planned.