al boasting. And he certainly gave me to
understand that it was two or three, not one," said Olivia.

"Have you any suspicion that he had any particular lady in mind--any of
your common friends, for example--some one who has stayed at the Castle?"
said Mr. Flexen.

"None at all. I haven't the slightest idea who it could have been. It
must have been some one I don't know, or I should have been nearly sure
to notice something," said Olivia.

"Can you tell me any one who might know?"

Olivia shook her head, and said: "No. I don't know any friend of my
husband well enough to say. He never told me who his chief friends were.
It never occurred to me that he had an intimate friend. I always thought
he hadn't, in fact."

"I tell you what: you might inquire of Outhwaite, you know the man I
mean, the man who used always to be getting fined for furious driving. He
was a friend of Loudwater, the only friend I ever heard him mention,
indeed. If he ever confided in any one, that would be the most likely
man," said Colonel Grey.

"Thank you. That's an idea. I'll certainly try him," said Mr. Flexen, and
he turned as if to go.

But Olivia stopped him, saying: "Do you think, then, that a woman did it,
Mr. Flexen?"

"Well, there is a certain amount of evidence which lends some colour to
that theory, but I don't want any one to know that," said Mr. Flexen.

And then he could have sworn that he heard Olivia breathe a faint sigh
of relief.

But Colonel Grey broke in in a tone of some acerbity and more anxiety:
"It's nonsense to talk of any one having done it in face of the
medical evidence--any one, that is, but Loudwater himself. He
committed suicide."

"You think him a likely man to have committed suicide, do you?" said
Mr. Flexen.

"Yes. A man of his utterly uncontrollable temper is the very man to
commit suicide," said Colonel Grey firmly.

"It is, of course, always possible that he committed suicide," said Mr.
Flexen in a non-committal tone.

"It's most probable," said Colonel Grey curtly.

"What do you think, Lady Loudwater?" said Flexen.

"Why, I haven't thought much about it. I always--I--but now I do think
about it, I--I--think it's not unlikely," said Olivia, in a tone of no
great conviction. "And he was so frightfully upset, too, that night--not
that he had any reason to be; but he was."

"Ah, well; my duty is to investigate the matter till there isn't a shadow
of doubt left," said Mr. Flexen in a pleasant v