eling, since she is now as anxious
to destroy the will, as she was before to make it. What was that
something?

"As far as we know, she was quite alone during that half-hour. Nobody
entered or left that boudoir. What then occasioned this sudden change of
sentiment?

"One can only guess, but I believe my guess to be correct. Mrs.
Inglethorp had no stamps in her desk. We know this, because later she
asked Dorcas to bring her some. Now in the opposite corner of the room
stood her husband's desk--locked. She was anxious to find some stamps,
and, according to my theory, she tried her own keys in the desk.
That one of them fitted I know. She therefore opened the desk, and in
searching for the stamps she came across something else--that slip of
paper which Dorcas saw in her hand, and which assuredly was never meant
for Mrs. Inglethorp's eyes. On the other hand, Mrs. Cavendish believed
that the slip of paper to which her mother-in-law clung so tenaciously
was a written proof of her own husband's infidelity. She demanded it
from Mrs. Inglethorp who assured her, quite truly, that it had nothing
to do with that matter. Mrs. Cavendish did not believe her. She thought
that Mrs. Inglethorp was shielding her stepson. Now Mrs. Cavendish is
a very resolute woman, and, behind her mask of reserve, she was madly
jealous of her husband. She determined to get hold of that paper at all
costs, and in this resolution chance came to her aid. She happened to
pick up the key of Mrs. Inglethorp's despatch-case, which had been
lost that morning. She knew that her mother-in-law invariably kept all
important papers in this particular case.

"Mrs. Cavendish, therefore, made her plans as only a woman driven
desperate through jealousy could have done. Some time in the evening she
unbolted the door leading into Mademoiselle Cynthia's room. Possibly she
applied oil to the hinges, for I found that it opened quite noiselessly
when I tried it. She put off her project until the early hours of the
morning as being safer, since the servants were accustomed to hearing
her move about her room at that time. She dressed completely in her land
kit, and made her way quietly through Mademoiselle Cynthia's room into
that of Mrs. Inglethorp."

He paused a moment, and Cynthia interrupted:

"But I should have woken up if anyone had come through my room?"

"Not if you were drugged, mademoiselle."

"Drugged?"

"Mais, oui!"

"You remember"--he addressed us collect