Mr. Polycarp, Ravengar is, or was, a client of yours--'
'Was.'
'Yes, I heard what you said a few moments ago. Was a client of yours. I
am sure, therefore, that no one knows better than you that Ravengar is
not an honest man. On the other hand, I am equally sure that on the few
occasions when you and I have met I must have impressed you as a
comparatively honest man. Is it not so? I speak without false modesty.
Is it not so?'
Polycarp nodded.
'Well, then,' proceeded Hugo, walking slowly about, 'you will probably
need no convincing that in any difficulty between me and Ravengar I am
in the right. Now, there have been, and are, matters between Ravengar
and me in which others had best not interfere, even indirectly. I shall
end those matters in my own way, because I am the strongest, and because
my hands are clean. I can give you no details. But let me tell you that
once the whole of my life's dream was in this flat, this flat which you
have legally closed, and I have illegally opened. Let me tell you that
my life, the only part of my life for which I cared, came to an end in
this flat some months ago: and that a mystery hangs over that event
which has lately made intolerable even the dead-alive existence which
Fate had left to me.
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