they think of his words, and what do they
think of him?"

It was not so easy to determine as the anxious detective might wish.
Only one of them showed a simple emotion, and that one was, without any
possibility of doubt, the cook. She was a Roman Catholic, and was
simply horrified by the sacrilege of which she had been witness. There
was no mistaking her feelings. But those of the other two women were
more complex.

So were those of the men. Zadok specially watched each movement of his
young master with open mistrust; and very nearly started upright, in his
repugnance and dismay, when that intruding hand fell on the peaceful brow
of her over whose fate, to his own surprise, he had been able to shed
tears. Some personal prejudice lay back of this or some secret knowledge
of the man from whose touch even the dead appeared to shrink.

And the women! Might not the same explanation account for that curious
droop of the eye with which the two younger clutched at each other's
hands, to keep from screaming, and interchanged whispered words which
Sweetwater would have given considerable out of his carefully cherished
hoard to have heard.

It was impossible to tell, at present; but he was confident that it would
not be long before he understood these latter, at least. He had great
confidence in his success with women, homely as he was. He was not so
sure of himself with men; and he felt that some difficulties and not a
few pitfalls lay between him and, for instance, the uncommunicative
Zadok. "But I've the whole long evening before me," he added in quiet
consolation to himself. "It will be a pity if I can't work some of them
in that time."

The last thing he had remarked, before Carmel's unearthly cry had sent
the horrified guests in disorder from the house, was the presence of Dr.
Perry in a small room which Sweetwater had supposed empty, until the
astonishing events I have endeavoured to describe brought its occupant to
the door. What the detective then read in the countenance of the family's
best friend, he kept to himself; but his own lost a trace of its former
anxiety, as the official slipped back out of sight and remained so, even
after the funeral cortege had started on its course.

Plans had been made for carrying the servants to the cemetery, and,
despite the universal disturbance consequent upon these events, these
plans were adhered to. Sweetwater watched them all ride away in the last
two carriages.

This gav