“Now you shall speak. Tell us two dry men of science what you see with those so bright eyes.” He took her hand and held it whilst she spoke. His finger and thumb closed on her pulse, as I thought instinctively and unconsciously, as she spoke:⁠—

“The Count is a criminal and of criminal type. Nordau and Lombroso would so classify him, and

quâ

criminal he is of imperfectly formed mind. Thus, in a difficulty he has to seek resource in habit. His past is a clue, and the one page of it that we know⁠—and that from his own lips⁠—tells that once before, when in what