of his or her
personality. I should like to try something else which would be more
interesting to you."

The Duchess turned towards him with clasped hands.

"Can't you," she said, "make her say how Mr. Rochester met with his
accident?"

There was a little thrill amongst everyone. Saton stood as though
absorbed in thought.

"Why not?" he said softly to himself.

Rochester laughed hardly.

"Come," he said, "we are getting practical at last. Let one thing be
understood, though. If our young friend here is really able to solve
this little mystery, he will not object to my making use of his
discovery."

"By no means," Saton answered. "But I warn you that if the person is
one unknown to Lady Marrabel or myself, I cannot tell you who it was.
All that I can do is perhaps to show you something of how the thing
was done."

"It will be most interesting!" Rochester declared.

There was a subdued murmur of thrilled voices. One or two looked at
each other uneasily. Even the Duchess began to feel a little
uncomfortable. Saton was suddenly facing Pauline. He was standing a
little nearer, with the fingers of his right hand resting upon the
round oak table which stood in the centre of the hall. His figure had
become absolutely rigid, and the color had left his cheeks. His voice
seemed to them to come from some other person.

"Listen," he said, bending even a little further toward the woman, who
was leaning forward now from her chair, as though eager or compelled
to hear what was being said to her. "A month--six weeks--some time
ago, you were with Henry Rochester, a few minutes after his accident.
He was shot--or he shot himself. He was shot by design or by
misadventure. You were the first to find him. You came round the
corner of the wood, and you saw him there, lying upon the grass. You
heard a shot just before--two shots. You came round the corner of the
wood, and you saw nothing except the body of Henry Rochester lying
upon the ground."

"Nothing!" she murmured. "Nothing!"

There was an intense silence. The little group of people were all
leaning forward with eyes riveted upon Pauline Marrabel. Even
Rochester's expression had become a little tense.

"Think again," Saton said. "There was only a corner of the wood
between you and that field when the shot was fired. You are walking
there now, now, as the shots are fired. Bend forward. You can see
through those trees if you try. I think that you do see through them."