"we've only got to explain," i told myself a hundred times during that long sleepless journey. the thundering wheels so close beneath my head echoed: "explain. oh yes! explain! explain! explain!"
and something, a voice to which i would not listen, urged: "suppose they do not choose to believe what you explain."
when i sat face to face with maxwell hartington, my solicitor, in his ink-splashed, dirty, yellow-grained room with its rows of black tin boxes, i could no longer ignore that possibility. maxwell hartington sat back in his chair after his fashion, listening to my story, breathing noisily through his open mouth, perspiring little beads and looking more out of condition than ever. i never knew a man so wine-sodden and so sharp-witted.
"that's all very well, stratton," he said, "between ourselves. very unfortunate and all that sort of thing. but it doesn't satisfy justin evidently; and we've got to put a different look on it if we can, before we go before a jury: you see——" he seemed to be considering and rejecting unpalatable phrases "they won't understand."
"but," i said, "after all—, a mere chance of the same hotel. there must be more evidence than that."
"you spent the night in adjacent rooms," he said dryly.
"adjacent rooms!" i cried.
he regarded me for a moment with something bordering on admiration. "didn't you know?" he said.
"no."
"they've routed that out. you were sleeping with your two heads within a yard of one another anyhow. thirty-six you had, and she had thirty-seven."
"but," i said and stopped.
maxwell hartington's admiration gave place i think to a slight resentment at my sustained innocence. "and lady mary changed rooms with her secretary two nights[pg 343] before—to be near the vacant room. the secretary went into number 12 on the floor below,—a larger room, at thirteen francs a day, and one not exposed to the early daylight...."
he turned over a paper on his desk. "you didn't know, of course," he said. "but what i want to have"—and his voice grew wrathful—"is sure evidence that you didn't know. no jury on earth is going to believe you didn't know. no jury!—-- why,"—his mask dropped—"no man on earth is going to believe a yarn like that! if that's all you have, stratton——"
