Part 28 (2/2)

Mrs Parham was in the drawing-room, arranging some flowers in a vase, and turned to me quickly when I was announced.

”Forgive me for calling, madam, but you will, of course, recollect me,”

I said. ”I was in this neighbourhood and thought I would pay my respects and ascertain how you were.”

”Ah! of course,” she exclaimed. ”I remember you perfectly--on that night--that night when they came here,” she faltered, rather tamely, I thought, and she motioned me to a chair and seated herself.

”The poor girl has, of course, been buried,” I said. ”I saw accounts of the inquest in the papers.”

”Yes. They brought in a verdict of murder, but up to the present the police have discovered nothing, it appears. Ah!” she sighed. ”They are so very slow. It's monstrous that such a thing could happen here, in the centre of a populated district. Out in the lonely country it would be quite another thing. I should have left the house at once, only I feared that my husband would be annoyed. He is abroad, you know.”

”And have you had no word from him?”

”Not a line. I'm expecting a letter from India by every mail. He is in India, I know, as he told one of his City friends that he was going. He sailed on the _Caledonia_ from Ma.r.s.eilles nearly five weeks ago. He may have written me from Paris and the letter miscarried. That's the only explanation I can think of.”

I recollected that I had never given her a card, therefore she very fortunately did not know my name, and I did not intend that she should, if concealment were at all possible.

There was a mystery about that house and its occupants which caused me to act with circ.u.mspection.

I looked around the room. Nothing had been altered save that the couch upon which they had laid the dead girl was now gone, and the corner of the carpet which had been torn up had been re-nailed down. The piano at which my hostess had sat when attacked was still in its place, and the table whereon had stood the photograph which I had stolen still contained that same silver and _bric-a-brac_.

As Mrs Parham was speaking the door suddenly opened, and the dark-eyed young girl whom I had watched on the previous night came gaily into the room. The instant I saw her I recognised that she was a lady. In a clean, fresh cotton blouse and neat tailor-made skirt she presented a much smarter appearance them in that cheap black coat and skirt as she stood in the muddy roadway. The green stone bracelet was still upon her wrist, the one object which alone had showed me that she was no shop a.s.sistant.

”This is Miss O'Hara,” my hostess exclaimed, introducing us; ”she has kindly come to stay with me until my husband's return.”

And as we bowed to each other I saw that the newcomer had no previous knowledge of me.

”I was present at the unfortunate affair,” I said. ”Mrs Parham must have been very upset by it.”

”She was,” declared the girl, in a quiet, refined voice. ”But she's getting over it now. The worst shock was the maid's death. It was a most dastardly piece of business, and moreover, no one knows with what motive it was done.”

”To get possession of something which Mr Parham had concealed here,” I said.

”That may be, but as far as Mrs Parham is aware they took nothing beyond a few of her husband's private papers.”

”Nothing except a photograph that stood on the table over there,”

remarked my hostess.

”A photograph!” I exclaimed, in pretended surprise. ”Of whom?”

”Of a friend,” was the vague response, and I saw that the two women looked at each other meaningly.

They intended to keep the ident.i.ty of the original of the stolen portrait a secret. Yet they were in utter ignorance that it was in my possession.

Why had this Miss O'Hara gone to meet Sybil in Nello's place? I wondered.

I chatted with them both for a long time, but without being able to discover any additional fact. They were both clever women, and knew how to hold their tongues.

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