. Vrain, buried as her husband, and she got the assurance money. The
only thing that remains for your conspiracy to be entirely successful is
that Mrs. Vrain should marry you; and--as I was told by Mr. Clyne--that
has pretty well been arranged."

"Do you think, then, that Clyne would let his daughter marry a man who
has done all this?" said Ferruci, who was now very pale.

"I don't believe Clyne knows anything about it," replied Lucian coldly.
"You and Mrs. Vrain made up this pretty plot between you. Vrain himself
told me how you decoyed him from Salisbury, and took him to Mrs.
Clear's, in Bayswater, where he passed as her husband, although, as she
confesses, she kept him as a kind of prisoner."

"But this is wrong," cried Ferruci, trying to laugh. "This is most
foolish. How would a man, of his own will, pass as the husband of a
woman he knew not?"

"A sane man would not; but none knew better than you, Count, that Vrain
was not sane, and that you dosed him with drugs, and let Mrs. Clear keep
him locked up in her house until you put him in the asylum. Vrain was a
puppet in your hands, and you locked him up in an asylum a fortnight
after the man who personated him was murdered. You intended to marry
Mrs. Vrain and keep her wretched husband in that asylum all his life."

"The best place for a lunatic," said Ferruci.

"Ah!" cried Lucian. "Then you admit that that Vrain was mad?"

"I admit nothing, not even that he is alive. If what you say is true,"
said the Italian, cunningly, "how came it that the murdered man had the
scar on his cheek? He might have been like Vrain, eh, but not so much."

"Mrs. Clear explained that," replied Lucian quickly. "You made that
scar, Count, with vitriol, or some such stuff. You don't know chemistry
for nothing, I see."

"I am quite ignorant of chemistry," said Ferruci sullenly.

"Jorce heard a different story in Florence."

"In Florence! Did Jorce ask about me there?" said the Count in alarm.

"He did, and heard some strange tales, Count. Come, now, it is no use
your trying to evade this matter further. Jorce can prove that you put
Vrain into his asylum under the name of Clear. Miss Vrain can prove that
the so-called Clear is her father, and Mrs. Clear--who has turned
Queen's evidence--has exposed the whole of your conspiracy. The game's
up, Count."

Ferruci sprang from his seat and began to walk hastily up and down the
room. He looked haggard and pale, and years older, as he rec