rom that
Mrs. Saumarez we saw this morning in the Coroner's Court. She wants me
to go round to her house at once."

Tansley showed his interest.

"Ah!" he exclaimed. "Then, she's something to tell."

"Why to me?" demanded Brent.

"You're Wallingford's next of kin," said the solicitor laconically.
"That's why."

"Wonder what it is?" muttered Brent. "Some feminine fancy maybe."

"Go and find out, man!" laughed Tansley.

"Just so," replied Brent. "I'm going now. But look here--who and what is
this Mrs. Saumarez? Post me up."

Tansley waved his cigar in the air, as if implying that you could draw a
circle around his field of knowledge.

"Oh, well," he said, "you saw her to-day. So you're already aware that
she's young and pretty and charming--and all that. As for the rest,
she's a widow, and a wealthy one. Relict, as we say in the law, of a
naval officer of high rank, who, I fancy, was some years older than
herself. She came here about two years ago and rents a picturesque old
place that was built, long since, out of the ruins of the old
Benedictine Abbey that used to stand at the rear of what's now called
Abbey Gate--some of the ruins, as you know, are still there. Clever
woman--reads a lot and all that sort of thing. Not at all a society
woman, in spite of her prettiness--bit of a blue-stocking, I fancy.
Scarcely know her myself."

"I think you said my cousin knew her?" suggested Brent.

"Your cousin and she, latterly, were very thick," asserted Tansley. "He
spent a lot of time at her house. During nearly all last autumn and
winter, though, she was away in the South of France. Oh, yes,
Wallingford often went to dine with her. She has a companion who lives
with her--that elderly woman we saw this morning. Yes, I suppose
Wallingford went there, oh, two or three evenings a week. In fact, there
were people--gossipers--who firmly believed that he and Mrs. Saumarez
were going to make a match of it. Might be so; but up to about the end
of last summer the same people used to say that she was going to marry
the doctor--Wellesley."

Brent pricked his ears--he scarcely knew why.

"Wellesley?" he said. "What? Was he a--a suitor?"

"Oh, well," answered Tansley, "I think the lady's one of the sort that's
much fonder of men's society than of women's, you know. Anyway, after
she came here, she and Wellesley seemed to take to each other, and she
used to be in his company a good deal--used to go out driving with him,
a l