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I tested it in all the ways known to me, but without benefit or enlightenment; and in the end I was about to cast it aside, when I chanced on a passage in the manuscript of Ibn Jasher the same, in fact, that I showed you a few minutes ago." "And you found?"
Jasher were having a confidential conversation in the small pink drawing-room. True to her promise, Miss Kendal had come to readjust matters between the fiery little Professor and the widow. But it was not an easy task, as Mrs. Jasher was righteously indignant at the rash words used to her. "As if I knew anything about the matter," she repeated again and again in angry tones.
"Criminal, my dear, criminal," said Mrs. Jasher, rising to take her leave. "It is not a matter I care to mix myself up with. Still" she laughed "you know, why I am doing so." "If I had to take all this trouble to gain a husband," observed Lucy somewhat acidly, "I should remain single all my life."
However, he came home to die at Brighton, and a few weeks ago just after this murder took place, in fact I was summoned to his death-bed. He lingered on until last week and died in my arms. He left me nearly all his money, so I will be able to help the Professor." "I don't see why you should," said Lucy, wondering why Mrs. Jasher did not wear mourning for the dead.
"Well, everything is arranged very well," said Lucy. "I marry Archie; you, father, make Mrs. Jasher your wife; and I suspect Sir Frank will marry Donna Inez." "Ha!" said Braddock with a start, "the daughter of De Gayangos, who has come here for the missing mummy. Mrs. Jasher told me somewhat of that, my dear. But I shall see Don Pedro myself to-morrow. Meanwhile, let us eat and drink.
"Yes, and told me lies about her damned brother who was a Pekin merchant, when after all he never existed." "Oh, I don't defend that," said Random coolly. "Mrs. Jasher has behaved badly on the whole. Still, Professor, I think there is good in her, as I said before. She evidently had bad parents and a bad husband; but, so far as I can gather, she is not an immoral woman.
"Yes, Mrs. Jasher," said the young man, coming softly to the bedside. She thrust out a weak hand and clutched him. "You must be my father-confessor, and hear all. You got the emerald?" "What!" Random recoiled in astonishment, "Did you " "Yes, I sent it to you as a wedding present. I was sorry and I was afraid; and I I " She paused again, gasping. The doctor intervened and gave her more brandy.
Jasher nodded. "You put the matter very clearly," she observed dryly. "You have mistaken your vocation, Mr. Hope, and should have been a criminal lawyer. I should turn detective were I you." "Why?" asked Archie with a start. "You might ascertain my movements on the night when the crime was committed," snapped the little widow.
Jasher, having got it from Bolton when she talked to him through the window, may have done so." "Nonsense!" said Hope with vigorous commonsense. "Mrs. Jasher would be spotted in a moment if she had gone to your quarters. She had to pass the sentry, remember. Then, again, we have not yet proved that she was the woman in Mrs. Bolton's clothes who spoke through the window.
"She engaged herself to Braddock." "But only after Bolton's death, remember." Don Pedro nodded. "That is true. But what you say, Mr. Hope, proves the truth of Hervey's theory." "In what way?" "Mrs. Jasher, as we know from what Random told us, wanted money. She would not marry a man who was poor. Bolton was poor, but of course the emeralds would make him wealthy, as they are of immense value.
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