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Then there is the evidence of your cloak, which you left behind, and which Wrent gave to the servant Rhoda. Also the evidence of Signor Ferruci " "Ferruci! What has he said about me?" Lucian saw that revenge might make the woman speak, so he lied in the calmest manner to get at the truth. "Ferruci says that he contrived the whole conspiracy." "So he did," said Mrs. Clear, with a nod.
"It will end with the capture of Wrent, the assassin." "I hope so; and God grant Wrent does not prove to be your father!" "There is no fear of that," said Diana gravely. "My father is insane more or less, but he is not a murderer. I am quite content to risk the trap suggested by that woman."
"I don't believe a word of Ferruci's story. If Vrain lived in Jersey Street as Wrent, why should Mrs. Clear visit him?" "To get him back to Bayswater." "Nonsense! nonsense! And even admitting as much, why should Mrs. Clear, in the newspapers, correspond in cypher with a man whom she not only knows is in an asylum as her husband, but who can be seen by her at any time?"
'Ave you gone crazy?" wailed Mrs. Bensusan. "Look here," said the girl, taking no notice of her mistress, "do you want to know about Mr. Wrent?" "Yes, I do." "And about that side passage as you talked of to the missis?" "Yes." "Then I'll answer yer questions, sir. You'll know all I know." "Very good," said Lucian, with an approving smile, "now you are talking like a sensible girl." "Rhoda!
"No, I don't!" "Do you know who did?" "Blest if I do!" "Does Mr. Wrent?" asked Denzil meaningly. The girl wet her finger and went through a childish game. "That's wet," she said; then wiping the finger on her dingy skirt, "that's dry. Cut my throat if I tell a lie. Ask me something easier, Mr. Denzil." "I don't understand you," said Lucian, quite puzzled. "Rhoda! Rhoda!
Lucian did not at once adopt the plan to net Wrent whosoever he might be invented by Lydia, and approved of by Diana. On the whole, he could not bring himself to believe that a weak-headed, foolish old creature like Vrain had masqueraded in Jersey Street as Wrent. Still there were certain suspicious incidents which fitted in very neatly with Ferruci's story. Mrs.
How this interview with that lady sped, or what she told him, he refused to reveal to Lucian; but its result was that a cypher appeared in the agony column of the Daily Telegraph, calling upon Wrent to meet her in the Silent House in Pimlico, under the penalty of her telling the police all she knew if he did not come.
"I am greatly obliged to you for your good opinion," said Lucian drily, for he saw with some humour that Link was only too anxious to benefit by the very cleverness of which he pretended to be so jealous. "And you will see Mrs. Clear?" "Yes; I'll see her at once, and get her to invite Wrent to Pimlico by that cypher, with a threat that she will betray the whole plot if he does not come."
She certainly did not thrust herself personally on Clear, but whenever his back was turned she took to stealing things out of his room, when he was foolish enough to leave the door open. Clear was much enraged, and complained to Clyne known to Rhoda as Wrent who in his turn read the girl a sharp lecture.
"Very well," said Lydia, loudly and spitefully, "then make him suffer, for this Wrent is your own father! It was Mark who killed Michael Clear!" In the course of their acquaintance, Diana had put up with a great deal from the little American adventuress, owing to her position of stepmother, but when she heard her accusing the man she had ruined of murder, the patience of Miss Vrain gave way.
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