"
"I have had! You know that I have had--and your face shows it!"
"You have none now--absolutely none now!"
His emphatic declaration fell upon Cervera with an effect which Venner
did not at first understand.
She sprang quickly toward him, gripping him hard by the wrist, while her
every nerve seemed stimulated with sudden agitation.
"None now? None now--now?" she fiercely reiterated, in inquiring
whispers. "Do you mean that--that it is done? that it is done?"
"Done?" gasped Venner, amazedly. "Is what done? What the devil are you
driving at?"
She drew back, searching his eyes with hers, and hers were like those of
a demon, in her momentary suspense.
"Then it isn't--it isn't?" she hissed, through her white teeth. "I
thought from what you said that it was. I thought--"
"Good God! what do you mean?" cried Venner, aghast for a moment.
Then, struck with a sudden recollection, he turned and snatched an
evening paper from a pocket of his coat, which he had tossed on a chair.
He had recalled certain leader lines which had caught his eye earlier in
the evening, yet which he then had not had sufficient interest to
follow.
Now he hurriedly opened the paper and read the story, or so much of it
as enabled him to guess the truth.
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