tried to. Her wits had been sorely
tried and my rather severe questioning had not tended to clear them. At
all events she went on in another moment as if I had not spoken:

"But what became of her pretty dress? I was never so astonished in my
life as when I saw that dark skirt on her."

"She might have left her fine gown upstairs," I ventured, not wishing to
go into the niceties of evidence with this woman.

"So she might, so she might, and that may have been her petticoat we
saw." But in another moment she saw the impossibility of this, for she
added: "But I saw her petticoat, and it was a brown silk one. She showed
it when she lifted her skirt to get at her purse. I don't understand it,
ma'am."

As her face by this time was almost purple, I thought it a mercy to
close the interview; so I uttered some few words of a soothing and
encouraging nature, and then seeing that something more tangible was
necessary to restore her to any proper condition of spirits, I took out
my pocket-book and bestowed on her some of my loose silver.

This was something she _could_ understand. She brightened immediately,
and before she was well through her expressions of delight, I had
quitted the room and in a few minutes later the shop.

I hope the two women had their cup of tea after that.

XX.

MISS BUTTERWORTH'S THEORY.

I was so excited when I entered my carriage that I rode all the way home
with my bonnet askew and never knew it. When I reached my room and saw
myself in the glass, I was shocked, and stole a glance at Lena, who was
setting out my little tea-table, to see if she noticed what a ridiculous
figure I cut. But she is discretion itself, and for a girl with two
undeniable dimples in her cheeks, smiles seldom--at least when I am
looking at her. She was not smiling now, and though, for the reason
given above, this was not as comforting as it may appear, I chose not to
worry myself any longer about such a trifle when I had matters of so
much importance on my mind.

Taking off my bonnet, whose rakish appearance had given me such a shock,
I sat down, and for half an hour neither moved nor spoke. I was
thinking. A theory which had faintly suggested itself to me at the
inquest was taking on body with these later developments. Two hats had
been found on the scene of the tragedy, and two pairs of gloves, and now
I had learned that there had been two women there, the one whom Mrs.
Boppert had locked into the house on l