"Adrienne doesn't wish any fuss
made over the matter."
And yet, Diana reflected, both her husband and Miss de Gervais knew quite
well who the assailant was! "The taller of the two," Adrienne had said
through the telephone. Why, then, with that clue in her hands, did she
refuse to prosecute?
Suddenly, into Diana's mind flashed an answer to the question--to the
multitude of questions which had perplexed, her for so long. She felt as
a traveller may who has been journeying along an unknown way in the dark,
hurt and bruised by stones and pitfalls he could not see, when suddenly a
light shines out, revealing all the dangers of the path.
The explanation of all those perplexities and suspicions of the past was
so simple, so obvious, that she marvelled why it had never occurred to
her before. Adrienne de Gervais was neither more or less than an
adventuress--one of the vampire type of woman who preys upon mankind,
drawing them into her net by her beauty and charm, even as she had drawn
Max himself! This, this supplied the key to the whole matter--all that
had gone before, and all that was now making such a mockery of her
married life.
And the "poor devil of a fellow" who had attempted Adrienne's life had
probably figured largely in her past, one of her dupes, and now,
understanding at last what kind of woman it was for whom he had very
likely sacrificed all that made existence worth while, he was obsessed
with a crazy desire for vengeance--vengeance at any price.
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