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Gaston sauntered slowly up to the coffee bar, and asked for a cup in his usual musical voice, but when the stout gentleman heard him speak he turned pale and looked up. The thin one had gone off to talk to someone else, so when Vandeloup got his coffee he turned slowly round and looked straight at Meddlechip seated in the chair. 'Good evening, M. Kestrike, he said, quietly.
'How energetic you are, my dear Kestrike, he said, smoothly, lying down on the sofa, and contemplating his shoes with great satisfaction; 'just the same noisy, jolly fellow as of yore. 'Damn you! said the other, fiercely, at which Gaston laughed. 'You had better leave that to God, he answered, mockingly; 'he understands more about it than you do.
She became his mistress, and caused a nine days' wonder in Paris by remaining constant to him for six months. Then there came to Paris an English gentleman from Australia name, Kestrike; position, independent; income, enormous. He had left Madame his wife in London, and came to our wicked Paris to amuse himself.
Poor Kestrike, surely his sin has been punished enough in having such a wife, and M. Vandeloup strolled away to speak to Mrs Riller, who, being bereft of Bellthorp, was making signals to him with her fan.
'Adele, at the head of the table, laughs and smiles; she looks at her old lover and sees murder in his face; she is ill and retires to her room. Kestrike follows her to see what is the matter. Braulard is left alone; he produces a bottle and pours its contents into a cup of coffee, waiting for Adele. Kestrike returns, saying Adele is ill; she wants a drink.
He takes her the poisoned cup of coffee; she drinks it and falls' with a long breath 'asleep. Kestrike returns to the room, asks Braulard to leave the house. Braulard refuses.
He remonstrated with Adele, no use; he offered to fight a duel with the perfidious Kestrike, no use; the thief was a coward. 'No, cried Meddlechip, rising, 'no coward. 'I say, yes! said Vandeloup, crossing to him, and forcing him back in his chair; 'he betrayed his friend and refused to give him the satisfaction of a gentleman. What did Braulard do? Rest quiet? No. Revenge his honour? Yes!
The facts of the case were shortly these: An actress called Adele Blondet died from the effects of poison, administered to her by Octave Braulard, who was her lover; the deceased had also another lover, called Kestrike, who was supposed to be implicated in the crime, but he had escaped; the woman in this case had been poisoned by an extract of hemlock, the same poison used as in the case of Selina Sprotts, and it was the similarity of the symptoms that made him suspicious of the sudden death.
Braulard takes the name of Vandeloup and makes money; he comes to Melbourne, lives there a year, he is in want of money, he is in despair; at the theatre he overhears a plan which will give him money, but he needs capital despair again, he will never get it. Aha! Fate once more intervenes- -he sees M. Kestrike, now Meddlechip, he will ask him for the money, and the question is, will he get it?
'Kestrike, pursued Vandeloup, rapidly, 'is little known in Paris his name is an assumed one he leaves France before the police can discover how he has poisoned Adele Blondet, and crosses to England meets Madame, his wife, and returns to Australia, where he is called Meddlechip. The man in the chair threw up his hands as if to keep the other off, and uttered a stifled cry.
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