ich this able detective explained every
detail of this crime by means of a theory necessarily hypothetical if
the discoveries I had made in the matter were true, and for the moment
subjected to the overwhelming influence of his enthusiasm, I sat in a
maze, asking myself if all the seemingly irrefutable evidence upon which
men had been convicted in times gone by was as false as this. To relieve
myself and to gain renewed confidence in my own views and the
discoveries I had made in this matter, I repeated the name of Howard,
and asked how, in case the whole crime was conceived and perpetrated by
his brother, he came to utter such equivocations and to assume that
position of guilt which had led to his own arrest.

"Do you think," I inquired, "that he was aware of his brother's part in
this affair, and that out of compassion for him he endeavored to take
the crime upon his own shoulders?"

"No, madam. Men of the world do not carry their disinterestedness so
far. He not only did not know the part his brother took in this crime,
but did not even suspect it, or why acknowledge that he lost the key by
which the house was entered?"

"I do not understand Howard's actions, even under these circumstances.
They seem totally inconsistent to me."

"Madam, they are easily explainable to one who knows the character of
his mind. He prizes his honor above every consideration, and regarded it
as threatened by the suggestion that his wife had entered his father's
empty house at midnight with another man. To save himself that shame, he
was willing not only to perjure himself, but to take upon himself the
consequences of his perjury. Quixotic, certainly, but some men are
constituted that way, and he, for all his amiable characteristics, is
the most dogged man I ever encountered. That he ran against snags in his
attempted explanations, seemed to make no difference to him. He was
bound that no one should accuse him of marrying a false woman, even if
he must bear the opprobrium of her death. It is hard to understand such
a nature, but re-read his testimony, and see if this explanation of his
conduct is not correct."

And still I mechanically repeated: "I do not understand."

Mr. Gryce may not have been a patient man under all circumstances, but
he was patient with me that day.

"It was his ignorance, Miss Butterworth, his total ignorance of the
whole affair that led him into the inconsistencies he manifested. Let me
present his case as I