found out it was gone. I pretended to faint, and whilst you were away getting water I took the thing and hid it away in my dress.
“I told you that I was staying at the Hôtel du Phare, but of course really I made a bee line back to Calais, and then on to England by the first boat. When we were in mid-Channel, I dropped that little devil of a dagger into the sea. Then I felt I could breathe again.
“Bella was at our digs in London. She looked like nothing on God’s earth. I told her what I’d done, and that she was pretty safe for the time being. She stared at me, and then began laughing … laughing … laughing … it was horrible to hear her! I felt that the best thing to do was to keep busy. She’d go mad if she had time to brood on what she’d done. Luckily we got an engagement at once.
“And then, I saw you and your friend, watching us that night . . . I was frantic. You must suspect, or you wouldn’t have tracked us down. I had to know the worst, so I followed you. I was desperate. And then, before I’d had time to say anything, I tumbled to it that it was me you suspected, not Bella! Or at least that you thought I was Bella since I’d stolen the dagger.
“I wish, honey, that you could see back into my mind at that moment … you’d forgive me, perhaps . . . I was so frightened, and muddled, and desperate. . . . All I could get clearly was that you would try and save me. I didn’t know whether you’d be willing to save her … I thought very likely not—it wasn’t the same thing! And I couldn’t risk it! Bella’s my twin—I’d got to do the best for her. So I went on lying. . . . I felt mean—I feel mean still. . . . That’s all—enough too, you’ll say, I expect. I ought to have trusted you. . . . If I had—
“As soon as the news was in the paper that Jack Renauld had been arrested, it was all up. Bella
