a misfortune. Besides, she had been very fond of him;
she was very fond of him still, and the fact that he was in great
trouble was making him dearer to her.

Moreover, every one who spoke to her about him told her that he was
looking miserable beyond words. Her heart went out to him.

None the less, she did not go to see him without a struggle. She felt
that he ought to come to her. However, her pride had been beaten in that
struggle by her fondness and her pity--even more by her pity.

When she knocked at the door of his father's cottage James Hutchings
himself opened it, and his harassed, hang-dog air settled in her mind for
good and all the question of his guilt. She was not daunted; indeed, a
sudden anger against Lord Loudwater for having brought about his own
murder flamed up in her. Like every one else who had known him, she could
feel no pity for him.

James Hutchings showed no pleasure whatever at the sight of her. Indeed,
he scowled at her.

"Come to gloat over me, have you?" he growled bitterly.

"Don't be silly!" she said sharply. "What should I want to do a thing
like that for? Is your father in?"

"No; he isn't," said James Hutchings sulkily, but his eyes gazed at
her hungrily.

He showed no intention of inviting her to enter. Therefore she pushed
past him, walked across the kitchen, sat down in the window-seat, and
surveyed him.

He shut the door, turned, and gazed at her, scowling uncertainly.

Then she said gently: "You're looking very poorly, Jim."

"I didn't think you'd be the one to tell of my being in the Castle that
night!" he cried bitterly.

"It wasn't me," she said quietly. "It was that little beast, Jane
Pittaway. She heard us talking in the drawing-room."

"Oh, that was it, was it?" he said more gently. Then, scowling again, he
cried fiercely:

"I'll wring her neck!"

"That's enough of that!" she said sharply. "You've talked a lot too much
about wringing people's necks. And a lot of good it's done you."

"Oh, I know you believe I did it, just like everybody else. But I tell
you I didn't. I swear I didn't!" he cried loudly, with a vehemence which
did not convince her.

"Of course you didn't," she said in a soothing voice. "But what are you
going to do if they try to make out that you did? What are you going to
tell them?"

He gazed at her with miserable eyes and said in a miserable voice: "God
knows what I'm to tell them. It isn't a matter of telling them. It's how
to m