d married
her--or pretended to. However, it was a fake ceremony, and she couldn't
prove anything when he had spent all her money and tossed her aside. So
there wasn't anything we could do to him that time."

"More lies," said Mazi, calmly--or at least with the appearance of
calmness.

"The records show," went on the inexorable voice of Colonel Ashley,
"that next Jean Carnot, as he called himself then, became infatuated
with a pretty girl--and this time I'll say she was just about as pretty
as you, Mazi--and her name was Annie Tighe. She was an Irish girl, and
she insisted on being married by a priest, so there wasn't any faking
there. Jean was properly married at least."

"What do I care for all these lies?" sneered the girl, impatiently
tapping her foot on the floor. "Why do you bore me? I am not interested!
I should like to see Jean. Ha! Where have you put him?"

"You'll see him soon enough, Mazi. I've got just a few more records
to show you, and then I'm done. Now we come to the time when, after he
found he couldn't get out of a legal marriage, Jean put his foot in it,
so to speak. He was tied right, this time, so he took refuge in a lie
when he wanted to shake off the bonds of matrimony, as my friend Jack
Young would say. He told his wife--and she was his wife, and is yet--he
told her the ceremony was a fake, that the priest was a false one, in
his pay."

"All lies! What do I care?" sneered Mazi, again shrugging her shoulders.

"Well, now let's get along. After our friend Jean found he was tired of
his wife he shamed her into leaving him and she went--well, that isn't
pleasant to dwell on, either. Except that he's the villain responsible
for her going to the dogs. He sent her there just as he would have sent
you, Mazi, except for what has happened."

"You mean he is not my husband?"

"Not in the least."

"I do not believe you. It is all lies. These women are but jealous.
Proceed."

"That's about all there is to it, Mazi, except to show you the letter
from your own priest, who confirms the fact that the priest who married
Jean Carnot and Annie Tighe was legally authorized to do so, both by the
laws of his own church and those of New York State, where the ceremony
took place. You will believe Father Capoti, won't you?" and he laid
beside the girl a letter which she read eagerly.

This time she said nothing about lies, but her face turned deadly pale.

"And this is the last exhibit," went on the colonel,