ss her was as much due to
herself as to the knowledge he hoped to gain from her.

"Mrs. Duclos?" he asked.

"Yes, sir. And you?"

"I am a member of the New York police. My errand is one which you can
probably guess. You have a sister-in-law, the widow of your husband's
brother. As her testimony is of the utmost importance in the inquiry
which is to be made into the cause and manner of her daughter's death, I
should be very glad to have a few minutes' talk with her if, as we have
every reason to believe, she is in this house at the present moment."

Mrs. Edward Duclos was a strong and upright woman, but this direct
address, this open attack, was too much for her. However, before
replying, she had a question of her own to put, and she proceeded to ask
it firmly, quietly and apparently with every expectation of its being
answered:

"How did you learn that Mr. Duclos had a brother and that this brother
had left a widow?"

"Not from you, madam," he smiled. "Nor from your husband. I very much
wish we had. We have been waiting for some such word ever since our
advertisement appeared. It has not come."

She gave him a quick interrogating glance, folded her hands and answered
without further hesitation:

"We had our reasons for silence, reasons which we thought quite
justifiable. But they don't hold good if we are to be brought into
conflict with the police. Mr. Duclos told me this morning that if we were
driven to speak we must do so with complete honesty and without quibble.
What do you want to know?"

"Everything. First, your sister-in-law's story, then her reasons for
sending her child alone to the museum, as well as the cause of her flight
before she could have heard of that poor child's fate. More hangs upon an
understanding of these facts than I am at liberty to tell you. She
herself would agree with me in this if I could have a few minutes'
conversation with her."

"She is not in the house. She left us late last night without giving us
the least hint as to where she was going. She is, as you can very well
see, as little anxious to talk of her great trouble as you are to have
her, and recognizing that attempts were being made to find her and make
her speak, she fled before it was too late. I am sorry she did so, sorry
for her and sorry for ourselves. We do not approve her course, whatever
reasons she may have for it. At the same time, I feel bound to assure
you that to her they are all-sufficient. She is a co