e, and if Miss Saul had lived they would have been a
kind of triplets. I hate that style of beauty myself," said Mrs.
Mallow, who was slim and fair, "so coarse. Everyone called those Loach
girls pretty, but I never did myself. I never liked them, and I won't
call on Mrs. Octagon--such a vulgar name--if you marry fifty of her
wretched daughters, Cuthbert."

"Don't say that, mother. Juliet is an angel!"

"Then she can't be her mother's daughter," said Mrs. Mallow obscurely,
and finished the discussion in what she considered to be a triumphant
manner. Nor would she renew it, though her son tried to learn more
about the Loach and Saul families. However, he was satisfied with the
knowledge he had acquired.

While returning next day to London, he had ample time to think over
what he had been told. Miss Selina Loach had certainly shut herself up
for many years in Rose Cottage, and it seemed as though she was afraid
of being hurt in some way. Perhaps she even anticipated a violent
death. And then Mrs. Octagon hinted that she knew who had killed her
sister. It might not have been Caranby after all, whom she meant, but
one of the Saul family, as Mrs. Mallow suggested.

"I wonder if it is as my mother thinks," mused Cuthbert, staring out of
the window at the panorama of the landscape moving swiftly past.
"Perhaps Selina did kill Miss Saul, and shut herself up to avoid being
murdered by one of the relatives. Caranby said that Selina did not go
to the inquest, but pretended she was ill. Then she and her sister
went to the continent for two years, and finally, when they returned,
Selina instead of taking her proper place in society as Isabella did,
shut herself up as a recluse in Rose Cottage. The Saul family appear to
have been a bad lot. I should like to look up that coining case. I
wonder if I dare tell Jennings."

He was doubtful of the wisdom of doing this. If he told what he knew,
and set Jennings on the track, it might be that a scandal would arise
implicating Mrs. Octagon. Not that Cuthbert cared much for her, but
she was Juliet's mother, and he wanted to avert any trouble likely to
cause the girl pain. A dozen times on the journey Cuthbert altered his
mind. First he thought he would tell Jennings, then he decided to hold
his peace. This indecision was not like him, but the case was so
perplexing, and such serious issues were involved, that the young man
felt thoroughly worried.

Hitherto he had seen no