, which would be altogether the
happiest conclusion to arrive at. In fact my hastily formed calculation
was, as we know, subsequently borne out and the suicide theory would
probably have been quietly accepted had it not been for the intervention
of Gervase Henshaw with his smartness and incredulity.

"That is practically the end of my story, Miss Morriston. I laid the
chisel by the body, went to the window, pulled in the rope, carefully got
the centre, adjusted it through the stanchion, and with a last look at
the dead man, got out of the window, a rather nerve-trying business, and
began to lower myself. I had calculated that the double rope was long
enough to take me to within a few feet of the ground, and this proved to
be the case. When I came to the end I let go of one side and pulled the
other with me as I dropped. Then I drew the rope down, the latter half
when released falling with a great thud. Hastily I set off for the lake,
dragging the rope after me. At the landing-stage by the boat-house I
coiled it up as best I could and threw it in. As I had anticipated it was
thick and heavy enough to sink without being weighted. Then with a last
glance at the tower I made my way as quickly as possible to the hotel in
a state of nerves which you may imagine, little thinking that my descent
from the tower had been witnessed. My first intention was to abandon all
idea of going to the dance, but on reflection I came to the conclusion
that I had better at least put in an appearance there.

"Accordingly I changed and came on late to the ball, as you know.
Naturally a great curiosity possessed me to find out the girl who had
played the third part in the drama which had been enacted in the tower.
But I had not seen her face, nor heard her voice sufficiently to be able
to recognize it. There were several tall girls in the room, yourself
among the number, but naturally it never occurred to me--"

He stopped awkwardly, just as by inadvertence he was about to say that
which all along he had studiously refrained from suggesting.

"To suspect me," Edith Morriston completed his sentence with a smile.

"No," he continued frankly. "You would have been the last person to enter
my head in that connexion. And then Kelson came out of the passage from
the tower with Miss Tredworth, to whom he had just proposed. He
introduced me in a way which suggested their new relationship, and we had
just began to chat when to my horror I noticed what t