r
man's love--you have got your answer and your punishment!"

Dora's words, spoken in a moment of rare, but ungovernable passion, had
leaped from her lips in such a fast and furious torrent of denunciation,
that before the first few moments of the horror she had caused were
passed, she had done.

Enid heard her to the end, her voice sounding ever farther and farther
away, until at last it died out into a faint hum and then a silence.
Vane ran to her, and caught her just as she was swaying before she fell,
and carried her to a sofa. It was the first time he had held her in his
arms since he had had a lover's right to do so, and all the man-soul in
him rose in a desperate revolt of love and pity against the coldly
calculating villainy of the man who had used the vilest of means to rob
him of his love.

The moment he had laid her on the sofa, Dora was at her side, loosening
the high collar of her dress and rubbing her hands. Garthorne, crushed
into silence by the terrible vehemence of Dora's accusation, had dropped
into an armchair close by his father's body. Sir Arthur, half-dazed with
the horror of it all, threw open the door with a vague idea of getting
into the fresh air out of that room of death. As he did so, the hall
door opened, and an Inspector of Police followed by two constables and a
gentleman in plain clothes entered. The sight of the uniformed
incarnation of the Law brought him back instantly to the realities of
the situation. The Inspector touched his cap, and said, briefly, and
with official precision:

"Good morning, Sir Arthur. This is Dr. Saunders, the Coroner. I met him
on my way up from the village, and asked him to come with me. Very
dreadful case, Sir; but I hope the bodies have not been disturbed?"

"Oh, no," said Sir Arthur, "they have not been touched, but Mrs.
Garthorne is lying in the same room in a faint. I suppose we may take
her out before you make your examination?"

"Why, certainly, Sir Arthur," said the Coroner. "Of course, we will take
your word for that. But I believe Mr. Reginald Garthorne is at the
Abbey, is he not?"

"Yes," replied Sir Arthur, in a changed tone, "he is there, in the
library, but of course--well, I mean--what has happened has affected him
terribly, and I don't think he will be able to give you very much
assistance at present. In fact, he is almost in a state of collapse
himself."

"That is only natural, under the very painful circumstances," said the
Inspect