ess in a
state of starvation--"

"Say a woman like Me!" I broke out. "I am ready to try."

His eyes glittered; his teeth showed themselves viciously under his
mustache; he drummed fiercely with both hands on the arms of his chair.

"Do you really mean it?" he asked.

"Put me in your position," I answered. "Enlighten me with your moral
certainty (as you call it)--and you shall see!"

"I'll do it!" he said. "Tell me one thing first. How did an outside
stranger, like you, come to suspect her?"

I set before him, to the best of my ability, the various elements of
suspicion which I had collected from the evidence at the Trial; and
I laid especial stress on the fact (sworn to by the nurse) that Mrs.
Beauly was missing exactly at he time when Christina Ormsay had left
Mrs. Eustace Macallan alone in her room.

"You have hit it!" cried Miserrimus Dexter. "You are a wonderful woman!
What was she doing on the morning of the day when Mrs. Eustace Macallan
died poisoned? And where was she during the dark hours of the night? I
can tell you where she was _not_--she was not in her own room."

"Not in her own room?" I repeated. "Are you really sure of that?"

"I am sure of everything that I say, when I am speaking of Mrs. Beauly.
Mind that: and now listen! This is a drama; and I excel in dramatic
narrative. You shall judge for yourself. Date, the twentieth of October.
Scene the Corridor, called the Guests' Corridor, at Gleninch. On one
side, a row of windows looking out into the garden. On the other, a row
of four bedrooms, with dressing-rooms attached. First bedroom (beginning
from the staircase), occupied by Mrs. Beauly. Second bedroom, empty.
Third bedroom, occupied by Miserrimus Dexter. Fourth bedroom, empty. So
much for the Scene! The time comes next--the time is eleven at night.
Dexter discovered in his bedroom, reading. Enter to him Eustace
Macallan. Eustace speaks: 'My dear fellow, be particularly careful
not to make any noise; don't bowl your chair up and down the corridor
to-night.' Dexter inquires, 'Why?' Eustace answers: 'Mrs. Beauly has
been dining with some friends in Edinburgh, and has come back terribly
fatigued: she has gone up to her room to rest.' Dexter makes another
inquiry (satirical inquiry, this time): 'How does she look when she is
terribly fatigued? As beautiful as ever?' Answer: 'I don t know; I have
not seen her; she slipped upstairs, without speaking to anybody.' Third
inquiry by Dexter (logical in