t a bold front was half the battle. However grave her
own doubts of his innocence might be, she was resolved that such doubts
should, if possible, be banished from the minds of other people. Under
her influence he was already becoming his old self as far as looks went.
A shade of his usual ruddiness had come back; he was losing his
haggardness.

With the going of Mr. Flexen there came a lull. His departure was a
relief to Olivia, to Colonel Grey, and to James Hutchings. Doubtless he
was still working on the case; but, working at a distance, he seemed less
of a menace. All three of them seemed less under a strain. Olivia and
Grey spent their hours together in a less feverish eagerness to make the
most of them.

Even Helena Truslove, when Mr. Manley told her that Mr. Flexen had left
the Castle, said that she was very pleased to hear it. She looked very
pleased. Mr. Manley's sense of what was fitting restrained him from
asking her the reason of this pleasure. He had, indeed, no great desire
to hear the reason of it from her own lips. It was enough for him to
guess that she was the mysterious woman. He felt no need of her full
confidence.

The Castle seemed to be settling down to its old round, the quieter for
the loss of Lord Loudwater. His heir in Mesopotamia had been informed of
his death by cable. But no cable in reply had come from him. Mr. Manley
remained at the Castle as secretary to Olivia, who was making
preparations leisurely to leave it and settle down in a flat in London.
Colonel Grey was recovering from his wound with a passable quickness.
James Hutchings had come to look very much his old self. Thanks to the
shock he had had and thanks to Elizabeth, he wore a more subdued air, and
was much more amiable with his fellow-servants.

The _Daily Wire_, the _Daily Planet_, and the rest of the newspapers had
let the Loudwater mystery slip quietly out of their columns. Mr. Flexen
was waiting with quiet expectation for information about the unknown
woman. Since the advertisement the papers had given her had failed to
produce that information he had a London detective working on the life in
London, before his marriage, of the murdered man. Mr. Carrington had
found nothing among Lord Loudwater's papers in the office of his firm to
throw any light on the matter.

The chief actors in the affair regarded the quiet turn it had taken with
a timorous satisfaction. Not so William Roper; William Roper was
thoroughly dissati