"Tell me," she said, in a low voice. "I--I am a lonely woman; I have
neither husband nor child; you have interested me"--her voice sank for a
moment--"Yes, tell me. I--I may help you----"
"I'm afraid I'm beyond even your help," said Derrick; "but this is how
it is."
He told her the story of the forged cheque, suppressing all names, and
Donna Elvira listened, as immovable as a statue, looking straight before
her, her brows drawn, her lips set. She sighed as he finished, and said, "The woman you did this for--you cared for her?"
"I did, at one time--or, I thought I did," said Derrick; "but, when I
met that other girl, the girl who stepped in like an angel and saved me
from suicide, I cared for her no longer. It was as if she had gone out
of my life, out of my heart, and another woman had stepped into her
place. Do you understand, Donna Elvira?"
"It is not difficult," she said, with a faint smile. "The woman for whom
you made so foolish, so wicked a sacrifice was not worthy of you. It is
well that you should have forgotten her. This other girl--I do not know
her; but I think she must be good and true."
"She's all that," said Derrick, fervently. "If you had seen only just as
much of her as I have, you'd know that you were right. She is not a girl
who would jilt a man who cared for her, to marry another man for his
rank. She's good and true, as you say; as true as steel. Why, think of
it: a slip of a girl, scarcely out of her teens, facing, alone, a
madman, with a revolver! The sight of the thing gave her the horrors, I
could see; but there she stood, firm as a rock, pleading, arguing,
insisting, until she'd saved the silly fool. A girl like that is--oh, I
can't talk about her. And, what's it matter? I shall never see her
again. Besides, it isn't possible that a girl so beautiful, so charming,
should be free for long. I may meet her again; but it's long odds that,
when I do, it will be to find that she's married, got children--I beg
your pardon, your Excellency; you've been very kind to listen to all
this and very patient. You see how hopeless it is. I must try to forget
her. But that's impossible." He laughed ruefully. "I think of her every
day: I fall asleep thinking of her. But that's enough! About the
machinery?"