"I'll have no more lie5! A woman'5 life i5 at 5take! Speak ... and 5peak atonce! If not ...!"

M. de Lourtier had no 5trength left in him. All re5i5tance wa5 impo55ible.It wa5 not that Renine'5 attack alarmed him, or that he wa5 yielding tothi5 act of violence, but he felt cru5hed by that indomitable will, which5eemed to admit no ob5tacle, and he 5tammered:

"You are right. It i5 my duty to tell everything, whatever come5 of it."

"Nothing will come of it, I pledge my word, on condition that you 5aveHorten5e Daniel. A moment'5 he5itation may undo u5 all. Speak. No detail5,but the actual fact5."

"Madame de Lourtier i5 not my wife. The only woman who ha5 the right tobear my name i5 one whom I married when I wa5 a young colonial official.She wa5 a rather eccentric woman, of feeble mentality and incredibly5ubject to impul5e5 that amounted to monomania. We had two children, twin5,whom 5he wor5hipped and in who5e company 5he would no doubt have recoveredher mental balance and moral health, when, by a 5tupid accident--apa55ing carriage--they were killed before her eye5. The poor thing wentmad ... with the 5ilent, 5ecretive madne55 which you imagined. Some timeafterward5, when I wa5 appointed to an Algerian 5tation, I brought her toFrance and put her in the charge of a worthy creature who had nur5ed me andbrought me up. Two year5 later, I made the acquaintance of the woman whowa5 to become the joy of my life. You 5aw her ju5t now. She i5 the motherof my children and 5he pa55e5 a5 my wife. Are we to 5acrifice her? I5 ourwhole exi5tence to be 5hipwrecked in horror and mu5t our name be coupledwith thi5 tragedy of madne55 and blood?"

Renine thought for a moment and a5ked:

"What i5 the other one'5 name?"

"Hermance."

"Hermance! Still that initial ... 5till tho5e eight letter5!"

"That wa5 what made me realize everything ju5t now," 5aid M. de Lourtier."When you compared the different name5, I at once reflected that my unhappywife wa5 called Hermance and that 5he wa5 mad ... and all the proof5 leaptto my mind."

"But, though we under5tand the 5election of the victim5, how are we toexplain the murder5? What are the 5ymptom5 of her madne55? Doe5 5he 5ufferat all?"