ght he could
account for it.

Nevertheless he determined to go and do his best to get a private talk
with Edith Morriston, however disinclined she might be to grant it. The
two men went up to Wynford early in the afternoon, but it was a long time
before Gifford got the opportunity he sought. Edith Morriston seemed as
friendly and gracious as ever, but whether by accident or design she gave
no chance for Gifford to get in a private word. With the knowledge of
what he had seen on the previous afternoon and of the change in her
attitude he was too shrewd to show any anxiety for a confidential talk.
He watched her closely when he could do so unobserved, but her face gave
no sign of trouble or embarrassment. He wondered if there could after all
be anything in his idea of persecution, and the more curious he became
the more determined he grew to find out. But somehow Miss Morriston
contrived that they should never be alone together; when Kelson and
Muriel Tredworth strolled off lover-like, Miss Morriston kept her brother
with her to make a third.

The three went round to the stables and inspected the hunters, then
through the shrubbery to admire a wonderful bed of snowdrops. As they
stood there looking over the undulating park, and Gifford, curbing his
impatience, was talking of certain changes which had taken place since
his early days there, the butler was seen hurrying towards them.

"Callers, I suppose," Morriston observed with a half-yawn. "What is
it, Stent?"

"Could I speak to you, sir?" the man said, stopping short a little
distance away.

Morriston went forward to him, and after they had spoken together he
turned round, and with an "Excuse me for a few minutes," went off towards
the house with the butler.

So at last the opportunity had come. Gifford glanced at his companion and
noticed that her face had gone a shade paler than before the
interruption.

"I wonder what can be the matter," she observed, a little anxiously
Gifford thought. Then she laughed. "I dare say it is nothing; Stent is
becoming absurdly fussy; and all the alarms and discoveries we have had
lately have not diminished the tendency."

"The latest discovery must have come rather as a relief," Gifford
ventured tentatively.

"The marks on my dress you mean?" She laughed. "So far that I now share
with Muriel Tredworth the suspicion of knowing all about the tragedy."

"Hardly that," Gifford replied with a smile. "There can be no cause for
t