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"Miss Morriston looked well to-night," Gifford remarked, falling in with his friend's wish to postpone the more engrossing subject. "Yes," Kelson agreed casually. "She takes this ghastly business quietly enough. But that is her way." "I have been wondering," Gifford said, "how much she cares for Painswick. He is manifestly quite smitten, but I doubt her being nearly as keen on him."
But his expression changed as he glanced at Edith Morriston; she had denied that she had been in the room. "I have sent down to the police to tell them of the discovery," Morriston was saying. "The fact is that since the tragedy the servants appear to have rather shunned this part of the house, or at any rate to have devoted as little time to it as possible.
"He must have seen the hate in my eyes as in my hesitation they met his, for he said with a forced laugh, 'You need not do violence to your feelings by dancing with me, Miss Morriston, if you don't care to, but there is something I must say to you. Let us come out of the crowd to where we shall not be overheard.
"I should like to come to an understanding with you, Mr. Henshaw, with regard to a very serious annoyance, not to say persecution, to which Miss Morriston has been subjected at your hands." Henshaw drew back his thin lips in a smile. "I have to tell you," Gifford continued, "once and for all that it must cease." "Miss Morriston authorizes you to tell me that?"
I had contrived, during the days he lingered, to make secret inquiries as to his condition, and so knew that what would have seemed my heartless absence from his bedside had made no difference to him." "Poor fellow," Gifford commented. "It was unspeakably sad," Edith Morriston continued, "but it seemed like fate, seeing how things rearranged themselves afterwards.
He had a very cogent reason for believing that he could be of assistance, although there were certain elements in the mystery which might, in his ignorance of them, upset his calculations. Anyhow in consideration of the trust Edith Morriston had shown in him he would seek an interview with her and chance what it might bring forth.
Apart from what is actually known I ask this as the dead man's only brother have either of you gentlemen formed any idea as to how he came by his death?" He was looking at Morriston, his cross-examining manner now softened by the human touch. "It has not occurred to me to look beyond what seems the obvious explanation of suicide," Morriston answered frankly. Henshaw turned to Kelson.
"I do not for a moment admit your right to interfere," he retorted with an assumption of calm superiority. "I am addressing myself to Miss Morriston, who does not, I hope, approve of your somewhat singular manners." Gifford took a step out of the summerhouse and sternly faced Henshaw.
She had gone but a few steps when in her hurry she tripped over the mound of a small, unmarked grave and fell to the ground. Gifford ran to her and taking her arm assisted her to rise. "Miss Morriston!" he exclaimed, for he now was sure of her identity. "I hope you are not hurt," he added mechanically, his mind full of a greater and more critical contingency. "Mr.
Having finally satisfied themselves as to the cause of the stains on the floor and sofa, the chief constable and his subordinate proposed to go to the lake and see whether the men who were dragging it had had any success. Morriston and Henshaw with Kelson and Gifford accompanied them.
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