She gasped for breath and seemed unable to speak. Greifenstein looked at his brother. ‘I cannot imagine how she knew your name,’ he said. ‘Did you know her before?’
Rieseneck had turned white again and stood twisting his fingers as though in some terrible distress. Greifenstein had not noticed his manner before, and gazed at him now in considerable surprise. He fancied that Rieseneck feared discovery and danger to himself.
‘What is the matter!’ he asked impatiently. ‘You are safe enough yet--’
While he spoke Clara endeavoured to rise, supporting herself upon one hand, and staring wildly at Rieseneck. The presentiment of a great unknown evil came upon Greifenstein, and he laid his hand heavily upon his brother’s arm.
‘What is the meaning of this?’ he asked sternly. ‘Do you know each other?’
The words roused Rieseneck. He drew back from his brother’s touch and answered in a broken voice:
‘No!’ exclaimed the other firmly. ‘You shall not go yet.’
Again he grasped Rieseneck’s arm, this time with no intention of relinquishing his hold.
‘Let him go, Hugo!’ gasped Clara. She struggled to her feet and tried to unloose the iron grip of her husband’s fingers, straining her weak hands in the useless attempt. ‘Let him go!’ she repeated frantically. ‘For God’s sake let him go!’
‘What is he to you?’ asked Greifenstein. Then, as though he guessed some fearful answer to his question he repeated it in a fiercer tone. ‘What is he to you? And what are you to her?’ he cried, facing his brother as he shook him by the arm.
‘You have cause to be angry,’ said Rieseneck. ‘And so have I.’ He fixed his eyes on Clara’s, and something like a smile flitted over his features.
‘Speak!’ commanded Greifenstein, to whom the suspense was becoming unbearable.
Clara saw that Rieseneck was about to utter the fatal words, and with a last remnant of energy she made a desperate attempt to cover his mouth with her hand. But she was too late.
‘This woman is my wife, not yours!’ he cried in ringing tones.
In an instant Greifenstein thrust his brother from him, so that he reeled back against the wall.
Clara fell upon the floor between the two men, a shapeless heap of finery. Rieseneck looked his brother in the face and answered the insult calmly. From the moment when he had recognised Clara, he had felt that he must see the whole horror of her fall with his own eyes in order to be avenged for his wrongs.