g about. I always do. You
know how careless they are. I went round the hall, and then I went to
bed. But, of course, I wondered about it," said Mrs. Carruthers.

Mr. Flexen looked at her refined, rather delicate face, and he did not
wonder how she had repressed her natural curiosity.

"Can you tell me whether the French window in the library, the end one,
was open at that time?" he said.

"I can't," she said in a tone of regret. "I couldn't very well open the
library door. If the door between the library and the smoking-room was
open, I should have been certain to hear something that was not meant
for my ears. And it generally is open in summer time. But I should think
it very likely that the lady came in by that window. It's always open in
summer time. In fact, his lordship always went out into the garden
through it, going from his smoking-room."

"And what time was it that you heard this?" he said.

"A few minutes past eleven. I looked round the drawing-room and the two
dining-rooms, and it was a quarter-past eleven when I came into my room."

"That's the first exact time I've got from any one yet," said Mr. Flexen
in a tone of satisfaction. "And that's all you heard?"

She hesitated, and a look of distress came over her face. Then she said:
"You have questioned Elizabeth Twitcher. Did she tell you anything about
his lordship's last quarrel with her ladyship?"

"She did not," said Mr. Flexen. "Mr. Manley told me that she had told
him about the quarrel. But I did not question her about it. I left it
till later."

Mrs. Carruthers hesitated; then she said: "It's so difficult to see what
one's duty is in a case like this."

"Well, one's obvious duty is to make no secret of anything that may throw
a light on the crime. Was it anything out of the way in the way of
quarrels? Wasn't Lord Loudwater always quarrelling with Lady Loudwater?
I've been told that he was always insulting and bullying her."

"Well, this one was rather out of the common," said Mrs. Carruthers
reluctantly. "He accused her of having kissed Colonel Grey in the East
wood and declared that he would divorce her."

"It was Colonel Grey, was it?" said Mr. Flexen.

"That is what Elizabeth Twitcher told me after supper last night. It
seems that his lordship burst in upon them when she was dressing her
ladyship's hair for dinner and blurted it out before her. I've no doubt
she was telling the truth. Twitcher is a truthful girl."

"Moderately truth