rs," he answered.

"Indeed! And yet you returned to--Norfolk, is it?"

He bowed.

"It is true, Madame!" he admitted.

"How droll!" she murmured. "Miss Poynton--she is an old friend of
yours?"

"I am very anxious to see her, Madame!"

"Why?"

He hesitated. After all, his was no secret mission.

"I have reason to believe," he said, "that a mistake has been made in
the identity of the body found in the Seine and supposed to be her
brother's."

She gave a little start. It seemed to him that from that moment she
regarded him with more interest.

"But that, Monsieur," she said, "is not possible."

"Why not?"

She did not answer him for a moment. Instead she rang a bell.

A servant appeared almost immediately.

"Request Monsieur le Marquis to step this way immediately he returns,"
she ordered.

The man bowed and withdrew. The Marquise turned again to Duncombe.

"It is quite impossible!" she repeated. "Do you know who it was that
identified--the young man?"

Duncombe shook his head.

"I know nothing," he said. "I saw the notice in the paper, and I have
been to the Morgue with a friend."

"Were you allowed to see it?"

"No! For some reason or other we were not. But we managed to bribe one
of the attendants, and we got the police description."

"This," Madame said, "is interesting. Well?"

"There was one point in particular in the description," Duncombe said,
"and a very important one, which proved to us both that the dead man was
not Guy Poynton."

"It is no secret, I presume?" she said. "Tell me what it was."

Duncombe hesitated. He saw no reason for concealing the facts.

"The height of the body," he said, "was given as five feet nine. Guy
Poynton was over six feet."

The Marquise nodded her head slowly.

"And now," she said, "shall I tell you who it is who identified the body
at the Morgue--apart from the papers which were found in his pocket, and
which certainly belonged to Mr. Poynton?"

"I should be interested to know," he admitted.

"It was Miss Poynton herself. It is that which has upset her so. She
recognized him at once."

"Are you sure of this, Madame?" Duncombe asked.

"I myself," the Marquise answered, "accompanied her there. It was
terrible."

Duncombe looked very grave.

"I am indeed sorry to hear this," he said. "There can be no possibility
of any mistake, then?"

"None whatever!" the Marquise declared.

"You will permit me to see her?" Duncombe begged. "If I am no