g for a ball. She
had made a private arrangement with Ellingham to plead a headache at the
last moment and let Arthur go alone. But he had been so insistent
that she had been forced to go, after all. She had sent the governess,
Suzanne Gautier, out to telephone Ellingham not to come, but he was not
at his house, and the message was left with his valet. As it turned out,
he had already started.

Elinor was dressed, all but her ball-gown, and had put on a negligee,
to wait for the governess to return and help her. Arthur was in his
dressing-room, and she heard him grumbling about having no blades for
his safety razor.

He got out a case of razors and searched for the strop. When she
remembered where the strop was, it was too late. The letters had been
beside it, and he was coming toward her, with them in his hand.

She was terrified. He had read only one, but that was enough. He
muttered something and turned away. She saw his face as he went toward
where the revolver had been hidden from the children, and she screamed.

Charlie Ellingham heard her. The door had been left unlocked by the
governess, and he was in the lower hall. He ran up and the two men
grappled. The first shot was fired by Arthur. It struck the ceiling.
The second she was doubtful about. She thought the revolver was still
in Arthur's hand. It was all horrible. He went down like a stone, in the
hallway outside the door.

They were nearly mad, the two of them. They had dragged the body in, and
then faced each other. Ellingham was for calling the police at once
and surrendering, but she had kept him away from the telephone. She
maintained, and I think it very possible, that her whole thought was
for the children, and the effect on their after lives of such a scandal.
And, after all, nothing could help the man on the floor.

It was while they were trying to formulate some concerted plan that they
heard footsteps below, and, thinking it was Mademoiselle Gautier, she
drove Ellingham into the rear of the house, from which later he managed
to escape. But it was Clara who was coming up the stairs.

"She had been our first governess for the children," Elinor said, "and
she often came in. She had made a birthday smock for Buddy, and she had
it in her hand. She almost fainted. I couldn't tell her about Charlie
Ellingham. I couldn't. I told her we had been struggling, and that I was
afraid I had shot him. She is quick. She knew just what to do. We worked
fast.