tch for Simpkins. It's what she will do. She'll
murder him."

"Nonsense."

"It's not nonsense. She will. She told me herself that she has come
to Ballymoy for the express purpose of murdering another husband. She
said she wanted quiet and security from interruption in order to go on
with her work."

"You're going mad, J. J.; stark mad. I'm sorry for you."

"I got into the carriage with her this morning by the merest accident,"
said Meldon. "If the baby hadn't got whooping-cough a fortnight ago,
and kept me awake all night, I shouldn't have caught the early train.
I didn't mean to catch it. Directly I looked at her I saw that she was
a remarkable woman. You've not seen her yet?"

"No," said the Major, "I haven't, and I don't particularly want to."

"Her face seemed more or less familiar to me," said Meldon. "You'll
recognise it, too, when you see it. Or more probably you won't. I
suppose you still read nothing but _The Times_, and it doesn't publish
the portraits of celebrities."

"Is Miss King a celebrity? I never heard of her."

"Not under that name; but when I mention that her real name is Mrs.
Lorimer, you'll remember all about her."

"The woman who was tried the other day for murdering her husband, and
got off."

"Precisely," said Meldon. "I happened, by the merest chance, to have
five portraits of her in three different papers. I compared them
carefully with Miss King, and I haven't the slightest doubt that she's
the same woman."

"You're probably quite mistaken," said the Major. "Those pictures in
the daily papers are never the least like the person they're supposed
to represent."

"I might have been mistaken, though I very seldom am; but in this case
I certainly was not. She seemed quite pleased when I said I recognised
her, and told me frankly that she had murdered several husbands, and
hoped to live to murder many more. I urged her to give it up. Being a
clergyman I was bound to do that. But it wasn't the least use. She
said it was her art; and you know, Major, when people start talking
about art, it simply means that they are dead to all sense of morality.
It doesn't in the least matter what the art is. The effect is always
the same. That's the reason I've made up my mind not to allow my
daughter to learn drawing. I won't have her moral sense blunted while
she's young. I don't deny that pictures and books and music are great
things in their way, but a simple sense of ri