Cannot you tell me that reason?" inquired the officer of the Surete,
still looking at him very shrewdly. "Why fence with me?"

Henfrey hesitated. Then he replied:

"It is a purely personal matter."

"And yet, you have said that you were not acquainted with Mademoiselle!"
remarked Ogier suspiciously.

"That is quite true. The first time I have spoken to her was this
evening, a few minutes before the attempt was made upon her life."

"Then your theory is that while you stood in conversation with her
somebody crept along the veranda and shot her--eh?"

"Yes."

Ogier smiled sarcastically, and turning to his colleague, ordered him to
search the room. The inspector evidently suspected the young Englishman
of having shot Mademoiselle, and the search was in order to try and
discover the weapon.

Meanwhile the brown-bearded officer called the Italian manservant, who
gave his name as Giulio Cataldi, and who stated that he had been in
Mademoiselle Ferad's service a little over five years.

"Have you ever seen this Englishman before?" Ogier asked, indicating
Hugh.

"Never, until to-night, m'sieur," was the reply. "He called about twenty
minutes after Mademoiselle's return from the Rooms."

"Has Mademoiselle quarrelled with anybody of late?"

"Not to my knowledge, m'sieur. She is of a very quiet and even
disposition."

"Is there anyone you know who might possess a motive to shoot her?"
asked Ogier. "The crime has not been committed with a motive of robbery,
but either out of jealousy or revenge."

"I know of nobody," declared the highly respectable Italian, whose
moustache was tinged with grey. He shrugged his shoulders and showed his
palms as he spoke.

"Mademoiselle arrived here two months ago, I believe?" queried the
police official.

"Yes, m'sieur. She spent the autumn in Paris, and during the summer she
was at Deauville. She also went to London for a brief time, I believe."

"Did she ever live in London?" asked Hugh eagerly, interrupting Ogier's
interrogation.

"Yes--once. She had a furnished house on the Cromwell Road for about six
months."

"How long ago?" asked Henfrey.

"Please allow me to make my inquiries, monsieur!" exclaimed the
detective angrily.

"But the question I ask is of greatest importance to me in my own
inquiries," Hugh persisted.

"I am here to discover the identity of Mademoiselle's assailant," Ogier
asserted. "And I will not brook your interference."

"Mademoiselle has been s