The cool assurance of the woman was so absurd I had to smile.

"I fancy it would be quite superfluous to offer you anything that
chanced to be within your reach," I said.

"Certainly, dear, when, at the same time, it chances to be my
husband's," she answered, and fell to smoothing out her gloves.

"Come, come!" I exclaimed. "What's the sense in keeping up the farce?"

"What farce, Armand, dear?"

"That I am your husband," I answered curtly. Her 'dears' and her
'Armands' were getting on my nerves.

Her face took on an injured look.

"Judging from your action, the other night and now, it would be well
for me if it were a farce," she said sadly.

I walked over to the table, on the far side of which she sat.

"Is it possible, madame, that, here, alone with me, you still have the
effrontery to maintain you are my wife?"

She put her elbows on the table and, resting her chin in her hands,
looked me straight in the eyes.

"And do you, sir, here, alone with me, still have the effrontery to
maintain that I am not your wife?" she asked.

"It's not necessary," said I, "for you know it quite as well as I do."

She shrugged her shoulders. "You're a good bit of a brute, Armand."

"And you're a----" I began quickly--then stopped.

"Yes?" she inflected. "I am a----?"

"I leave the blank to your own filling," I said, with a bow.

She laughed gayly. "Do you know you have played this scene very
nicely, my dear," she said. "If Colonel Bernheim has chanced to stay
close enough to the door, he so neatly slammed ajar, he has heard all
that we have said. Though, whether it was by your order or due to his
own curiosity, I, of course, do not know. Either way, however, you
scored with him."

I was so sure that Bernheim would now be far enough away from the door
that I reached across and flung it back.

The ante-room was empty, and, through its open doorway, we could see
Bernheim and Moore coming slowly down the corridor and twenty feet away.

But she only laughed again.

"Which simply proves Colonel Bernheim's wonderful agility," she said.
"He must be a most valuable Aide."

I closed the door.

"We are drifting from the point," I said. "You did me the honor to
request an interview."

"Not exactly, my dear Armand. I sought admittance to my husband."

"By 'husband' you mean----?" I asked.

She smiled tolerantly. "By all means, keep up the play," she said;
"but we shall save time and energy by assuming tha