n?"

"Eh?"

"Who really did kill him?"

"Why, I'm sure I don't know. I'm trying to find out."

"Oh, pshaw! You can't pull the wool over _my_ eyes! You couldn't have
been working on the case this long and not have discovered
the--the--malefactor."

"But that's exactly what I have done. Also it's why I rather hoped that
you might have a little more information for me."

"Me? Information for you? How wonderful! As if you'd be interested in
anything I might know! Although I'm not an absolute fool. Gerald says I
am, of course--he's my brother-in-law--but then Gerald isn't anything but
an old crab, anyway. Hateful thing! But _you_ don't think I am, do you?"

"No, indeed. Ah, here we are!"

The chocolate fudge sundaes were served, and for a few moments they
gave themselves over to the task of enjoying them. It was Evelyn who
spoke first.

"What do you want me to tell you?"

"Almost anything. For instance--you knew Roland Warren pretty well,
didn't you?"

"Oh, yes, indeed! I've known him forever and ever. He was an awfully nice
boy, and crazy about me--simply wild! That is, he was before he died."

"H-m! And you saw a good deal of him?"

"Oceans! He used to call at the house all the time. It _was_ funny, too.
Gerald used to think he was the one Roland was coming to see, and
Naomi--she's my sister--used to think that he was coming to see her; and
all the time I knew that I was the person he was calling on. It's funny,
isn't it, how old folks will get those queer ideas?"

"Your sister is so very old?"

"Terribly. She was thirty on her last birthday."

"Horrors! She _is_ ancient, isn't she?"

"Awfully! Although Naomi isn't so bad looking--"

"_Your_ sister couldn't be."

"Aw, quit kidding! But she isn't bad-looking, really. Lord knows she
deserves a better husband than she drew. Honestly, when the divine
providence was handing out shrubbery, they planted a lemon-tree in his
yard just before he was born."

"Probably your sister doesn't agree with your opinion."

"Oh, yes, she does! Of course, she doesn't talk to me about it, but I
know she ain't wild about Gerald. How could she be? He's old enough to be
her father--forty-two, if he's a minute. Don't think of anything but
business and making money. And he's _terribly_ jealous!"

"A very complimentary picture you draw of him."

"If I wrote what I thought about him, I could be arrested for sending it
through the mails. Goodness knows, no husband at all is