I stopped her there. I could control myself no longer.
"You have done me an infamous wrong!" I broke out hotly. "You suspect me
of stealing your Diamond. I have a right to know, and I WILL know, the
reason why!"
"Suspect you!" she exclaimed, her anger rising with mine. "YOU VILLAIN,
I SAW YOU TAKE THE DIAMOND WITH MY OWN EYES!"
The revelation which burst upon me in those words, the overthrow which
they instantly accomplished of the whole view of the case on which Mr.
Bruff had relied, struck me helpless. Innocent as I was, I stood before
her in silence. To her eyes, to any eyes, I must have looked like a man
overwhelmed by the discovery of his own guilt.
She drew back from the spectacle of my humiliation and of her triumph.
The sudden silence that had fallen upon me seemed to frighten her. "I
spared you, at the time," she said. "I would have spared you now, if you
had not forced me to speak." She moved away as if to leave the room--and
hesitated before she got to the door. "Why did you come here to
humiliate yourself?" she asked. "Why did you come here to humiliate
me?" She went on a few steps, and paused once more. "For God's sake, say
something!" she exclaimed, passionately. "If you have any mercy left,
don't let me degrade myself in this way! Say something--and drive me out
of the room!"
I advanced towards her, hardly conscious of what I was doing. I had
possibly some confused idea of detaining her until she had told me more.
From the moment when I knew that the evidence on which I stood condemned
in Rachel's mind, was the evidence of her own eyes, nothing--not even my
conviction of my own innocence--was clear to my mind. I took her by the
hand; I tried to speak firmly and to the purpose. All I could say was,
"Rachel, you once loved me."
She shuddered, and looked away from me. Her hand lay powerless and
trembling in mine. "Let go of it," she said faintly.
My touch seemed to have the same effect on her which the sound of my
voice had produced when I first entered the room. After she had said
the word which called me a coward, after she had made the avowal which
branded me as a thief--while her hand lay in mine I was her master
still!
I drew her gently back into the middle of the room. I seated her by the
side of me. "Rachel," I said, "I can't explain the contradiction in what
I am going to tell you. I can only speak the truth as you have spoken
it. You saw me--with your own eyes, you saw me take the Diamond. Before
God who hears us, I declare that I now know I took it for the first
time! Do you doubt me still?"