surprise to me that John Maitland should come to such an end. He was a
thoroughly bad and unprincipled man, who brought the most terrible
disgrace on those who were, unfortunately, connected with him. He was
likely to die a bad man's death."

"I may ask you a few questions about him?" suggested Spargo in his most
insinuating manner.

"You may, so long as you do not drag my name into the papers," she
replied. "But pray, how do you know that I have the sad shame of being
John Maitland's sister-in-law?"

"I found that out at Market Milcaster," said Spargo. "The photographer
told me--Cooper."

"Ah!" she exclaimed.

"The questions I want to ask are very simple," said Spargo. "But your
answers may materially help me. You remember Maitland going to prison,
of course?"

Miss Baylis laughed--a laugh of scorn.

"Could I ever forget it?" she exclaimed.

"Did you ever visit him in prison?" asked Spargo.

"Visit him in prison!" she said indignantly. "Visits in prison are to
be paid to those who deserve them, who are repentant; not to scoundrels
who are hardened in their sin!"

"All right. Did you ever see him after he left prison?"

"I saw him, for he forced himself upon me--I could not help myself. He
was in my presence before I was aware that he had even been released."

"What did he come for?" asked Spargo.

"To ask for his son--who had been in my charge," she replied.

"That's a thing I want to know about," said Spargo. "Do you know what a
certain lot of people in Market Milcaster say to this day, Miss
Baylis?--they say that you were in at the game with Maitland; that you
had a lot of the money placed in your charge; that when Maitland went
to prison, you took the child away, first to Brighton, then
abroad--disappeared with him--and that you made a home ready for
Maitland when he came out. That's what's said by some people in Market
Milcaster."

Miss Baylis's stern lips curled.

"People in Market Milcaster!" she exclaimed. "All the people I ever
knew in Market Milcaster had about as many brains between them as that
cat on the wall there. As for making a home for John Maitland, I would
have seen him die in the gutter, of absolute want, before I would have
given him a crust of dry bread!"

"You appear to have a terrible dislike of this man," observed Spargo,
astonished at her vehemence.

"I had--and I have," she answered. "He tricked my sister into a
marriage with him when he knew that she would rather ha