I. A. R. Wylie

“ Pagot-Chump?"
Mrs. Pagot-Chump, with recollections of New York, showed a face of blank indignation.
"Never!" she said.
Louis meanwhile looked round the room like a man who is taking a last farewell of his surroundings. He encountered his wife's wondering gaze and Saunders' supercilious stare. The one filled him with a biting remorse for the wrong he had done, the other with an obstinate desire to go on doing it. He had cheated her but, scoundrel though he was, he felt that he was nothing like as big a scoundrel as this pale-eyed wastling. It was his duty to protect his wife against herself. ”

“ The manager pleaded soothingly.
Monsieur de Beaulieu smiled.
"I believe you wished to speak to me," he said. "Who is this person?"
The manager had no opportunity to explain. The "person" turned from red to purple and uttered a sound that was like a throttled scream.
"I demand that the police be sent for," he stuttered. "I demand that this man be arrested. He is a fraud, a humbug. There is but one Count de Beaulieu and I am he. This here is the Countess de Beaulieu—" He broke off, choking with temper, and the late William Brown glanced involuntarily in the direction indicated. ”

“ With this assurance the Rogue followed Monsieur Bonnet into the manager's private room. As William Brown, at any rate, he was beginning to believe in himself. The sword of Damocles was about to fall and he felt astonishingly self-possessed, not to say brazen-faced. Nevertheless, the first encounter with the man he was impersonating caused him a shock. He had expected to meet his double—instead he found himself confronted by a small, alert and very angry personage who bore him no resemblance whatever. Theodora's conduct, not to mention Mrs. Pagot-Chump's, was growing more and more inexplicable. ”