murder. But, alas! all men are weak where a pretty woman is
concerned. After all, it is feminine wiles and feminine graces that
rule our world. Man is but a poor mortal at best, easily moved to
sympathy by a woman's tears, and as easily misled by the touch of a
soft hand or a passionate caress upon the lips. Diplomacy is inborn in
woman, and although every woman is not an adventuress, yet one and
all are clever actresses when the game of love is being played.

The thought of that letter I had read and destroyed again recurred to
me. Yes, she had concealed her secret--the secret of her attempt to
marry Courtenay for his money. And yet if, as seemed so apparent, she
had nursed her hatred, was it not but natural that she should assume a
hostile attitude towards her sister--the woman who had eclipsed her in
the old man's affections? Nevertheless, on the contrary, she was
always apologetic where Mary was concerned, and had always sought to
conceal her shortcomings and domestic infelicity. It was that point
which so sorely puzzled me.

"Why should my love for you become suddenly extinguished?" I asked,
for want of something other to say.

"I don't know," she faltered. "I cannot tell why, but I have a
distinct distrust of the future, a feeling that we are drifting
apart."

She spoke the truth. A woman in love is quick of perception, and no
feigned affection on the man's part can ever blind her.

I saw that she read my heart like an open book, and at once strove to
reassure her, trying to bring myself to believe that I had misjudged
her.

"No, no, dearest," I said, rising with a hollow pretence of caressing
her tears away. "You are nervous, and upset by the tragedy. Try to
forget it all."

"Forget!" she echoed in a hard voice, her eyes cast down despondently.
"Forget that night! Ah, no, I can never forget it--never!"

CHAPTER XIV.

IS DISTINCTLY CURIOUS.

The dark days of the London winter brightened into spring, but the
mystery of old Mr. Courtenay's death remained an enigma inexplicable
to police and public. Ambler Jevons had prosecuted independent
inquiries assiduously in various quarters, detectives had watched the
subsequent movements of Short and the other servants, but all to no
purpose. The sudden disappearance of Short was discovered to be due to
the illness of his brother.

The identity of the assassin, as well as the mode in which the
extraordinary wound had been inflicted, both remained myste