of a truth, Monsieur Chauvelin, your inventive powers have led you beyond the bounds of dreamland!...

Ha! ha! ha! ha!...

It is in the land of madness that you are wandering, sir, when you talk in one breath of Sir Percy Blakeney and the possible destruction of his honour!" But he remained apparently quite unruffled, and when her laughter had somewhat subsided, he said placidly: "Perhaps!..." Then he rose from his chair, and once more approached her.

This time she did not shrink from him.

The suggestion which he had made just now, this talk of attacking her husband's honour rather than his life, seemed so wild and preposterous--the conception truly of a mind unhinged--that she looked upon it as a sign of extreme weakness on his part, almost as an acknowledgement of impotence.
But she watched him as he moved round the table more in curiosity now than in fright.