was
dimmed; she wore a harassed air, and she was uncommonly nervous and ill
at ease. He thought it strange that she should be so deeply affected by
the death of a man she had such good reason to detest. But, of course,
there was no telling how a woman would take anything; Lady Loudwater's
distress had fallen as far short of what he had expected as Helena's had
exceeded it.

To Mr. Manley's credit it must be admitted that in less than twenty
minutes Helena Truslove was looking another creature; her face had
recovered all its colour; the harassed air had vanished from it, and she
was sitting on his knee in a condition of the most pleasant repose. It
was his theory that a woman was never too ill, or too ill at ease, or too
unhappy to be made love to. He had acted on it.

When he had thus restored her peace of mind, he told her that Mr. Flexen
had asked him whether the late Lord Loudwater had been mixed up with any
lady in the neighbourhood, and asked her if she could suggest any reason
for his having asked the question. She appeared greatly startled to hear
of it. But she could not suggest any reason for his having asked the
question. He then asked her about the manner in which the allowance had
been paid to her, and was pleased to learn that there was little
likelihood of Mr. Flexen's learning that she had received such an
allowance from Lord Loudwater, for it had been paid her through a young
lawyer of the name of Shepherd, at Low Wycombe, the lawyer who had dealt
with the matter of the transference of the house they were in to her,
from the rents of some houses Lord Loudwater owned in that town, and that
lawyer was somewhere in Mesopotamia, his practice in abeyance.

She was in entire accord with Mr. Manley about the advantage of her name
not being connected in any way with the tragedy at the Castle. She
pointed out that it was also an advantage that she had just, been paid
her allowance for the present quarter, and there would not be another
payment for three months. By that time it was probable that the murder
would have passed out of people's minds and Mr. Flexen be busy with other
work. It seemed to Mr. Manley that Mr. Flexen would not easily learn
about the allowance unless Mr. Carrington also knew it, which seemed
unlikely, though it was always possible that there was some record of it
among the Lord Loudwater's papers at the Castle. Soon after seven he left
her to walk back to dine with Mr. Flexen.

Mr. Flex