ovember."

"But--"

"Let me say this: the quarrel of which I speak was not serious enough to
occasion any such act of despair on his part. A man would be mad to
end his life on account of so slight a disagreement. It was not even on
account of the person of whom I've just spoken, though that person had
been mentioned between us earlier in the evening, Mr. Hammond having
come across him face to face that very afternoon in the subway. Up to
this time neither of us had seen or heard of him since our wedding-day."

"And you think this person whom you barely mentioned, so mindful of his
old grudge that he sought out your domicile, and, with the intention of
murder, climbed the trellis leading to your room and turned his pistol
upon the shadowy figure which was all he could see in the semi-obscurity
of a much lowered gas-jet?"

"A man in the dark does not need a bright light to see his enemy when he
is intent upon revenge."

Miss Strange altered her tone.

"And your husband? You must acknowledge that he shot off his pistol
whether the other did or not."

"It was in self-defence. He would shoot to save his own life--or the
baby's."

"Then he must have heard or seen--"

"A man at the window."

"And would have shot there?"

"Or tried to."

"Tried to?"

"Yes; the other shot first--oh, I've thought it all out--causing my
husband's bullet to go wild. It was his which broke the mirror."

Violet's eyes, bright as stars, suddenly narrowed.

"And what happened then?" she asked. "Why cannot they find the bullet?"

"Because it went out of the window;--glanced off and went out of the
window."

Mrs. Hammond's tone was triumphant; her look spirited and intense.

Violet eyed her compassionately.

"Would a bullet glancing off from a mirror, however hung, be apt to
reach a window so far on the opposite side?"

"I don't know; I only know that it did," was the contradictory, almost
absurd, reply.

"What was the cause of the quarrel you speak of between your husband and
yourself? You see, I must know the exact truth and all the truth to be
of any assistance to you."

"It was--it was about the care I gave, or didn't give, the baby. I feel
awfully to have to say it, but George did not think I did my full duty
by the child. He said there was no need of its crying so; that if I gave
it the proper attention it would not keep the neighbours and himself
awake half the night. And I--I got angry and insisted that I did the
b