"Mademoiselle Bliss!"--she could only repeat the words numbly. "It is her hat and coat?" The room seemed to swim around her. She put her hands to her eyes. A new terror was creeping upon her. The hat and cloak belonged to Mademoiselle Bliss! Vaguely, dimly, understanding began to come. He had thought that she was Mademoiselle Bliss, and because of that--no, no! The _bon Dieu_ would not let her suffer that too! It was so terrible--everything was so terrible this night--there could not be anything more, for it was already beyond what she could bear. She stretched out her hands to him imploringly. "It--it is not because you thought that I was Mademoiselle Bliss"--she was pleading piteously for a denial--"that--that you--that it is because of me you fought with Jean, and that Jean is--is--"
"Are you trying to play with me?" he rasped out savagely. "What else but that? You were here all night last night. Yes, I thought you were Mademoiselle Bliss! Yes, it was because of that I would have killed Monsieur Laparde! Is that plain enough, mademoiselle? And now will you answer me? Where did you get those things, and for what hellish reason were you wearing them? Answer me, I tell you!" He caught her, and shook her violently. "Answer me!" he fumed.
"Yes, answer him!" came a mocking voice suddenly from the archway of the salon.
With a cry, Marie-Louise tore herself away--and, swaying, stared wildly across the room. It was mademoiselle! It was Mademoiselle Bliss standing there between the portières!
A low laugh rippled through the _atelier_--unmusically, because it held a jarring, ominous note; and then Myrna Bliss was speaking again.
"Monsieur Vinailles told me that some girl here had made quite a _coup de théâtre_," she said calmly--too calmly to be natural. She fixed her grey eyes, narrowed a little now, on Marie-Louise. "I had no idea that it was _you_. How astounding!" She swung toward Paul Valmain. "Yes; Monsieur Valmain, I have been listening behind the portières. From the hall door, when I entered the house with Monsieur Vinailles a few moments ago, I caught sight of mademoiselle and yourself across the salon, thanks to the half open portières; and--mademoiselle, there, will perhaps understand this better than you--in spite of my anxiety for Jean, I sent Monsieur Vinailles upstairs alone. Do I make it plain, Monsieur Valmain, that I overheard your last remarks?"