"If you are faithful to me, you ought at least to tell me the reason they wished to kill me in secret." "Because they fear you," was his answer.
"Why should they fear me ?" But he shrugged his shoulders, and made a gesture with his hands indicative of utter ignorance.
"I ask you one question.

Answer yes or no.

Is the man Leithcourt my enemy ?" The young Italian paused, and then answered: "He is not your friend.

I am quite well aware of that." "And his daughter?
She is engaged, I hear." "I think so." "Where did you first meet Leithcourt ?" "I have known him several years.

When we first met he was poor." "Suddenly became rich--eh ?" "Bought a fine house in the country; lives mostly at the Carlton when he and his wife and daughter are in London--although I believe they now have a house somewhere in the West End--and he often makes long cruises on his steam-yacht." "And how did he make his money ?" Again Olinto elevated his shoulders, without replying.
If he would only betray to me the reason he had been induced to entice me to that house, I might then be able to form some conclusion regarding the tenants of Rannoch and their friends.
Who was the man who, having represented the man now before me, had been struck dead by an unerring hand?
Was it possible that Armida had been called by telegram to meet her husband, and recognizing the fraud perpetrated upon her threatened to disclose it and, for that reason, shared the same fate as the masquerader?
This was the first theory that occurred to me; one which I believed to be the correct one.