s the third? To Mr.
Gryce, but one name suggested itself in reply. So far, then, his theory
stood firm. Now what was the next fact known? The milkman stopped with
his milk; that was at half-past eleven. He had to wait a few minutes,
from which it was concluded she was up-stairs when he rapped. Was it at
this time she was interrupted in her letter-writing? If so, she probably
did not go back to it, for when Mr. Hildreth called, some fifteen
minutes later, she was on the spot to open the door. Their interview was
short; it was also stormy. Medicine was the last thing she stood in need
of; besides, her mind was evidently preoccupied. Showing him the door,
she goes back to her work, and, being deaf, does not notice that he does
not leave the house as she expected. Consequently her thoughts go on
unhindered, and, her condition being one of anger, she mutters aloud and
bitterly to herself as she flits from dining-room to kitchen in her
labor of serving up her dinner. The words she made use of have been
overheard, and here another point appears. For, whereas her temper must
have been disturbed by the demand which had been made upon her the day
before by her favorite relative and heir, her expressions of wrath at
this moment were not levelled against him, but against a young lady who
is said to have been a stranger to her, her language being: "You think
you are going to marry him, Imogene Dare; but I tell you you never
shall, not while I live." Her chief grievance, then, and the one thing
uppermost in her thoughts, even at a time when she felt that there were
many who desired her death, lay in this fact that a young and beautiful
woman had manifested, as she supposed, a wish to marry Mr. Orcutt, the
word _him_ which she had used, necessarily referring to the lawyer, as
she knew nothing of Imogene's passion for her nephew.

But this is not the only point into which it is necessary to inquire.
For to believe Mr. Orcutt guilty of this crime one must also believe
that all the other persons who had been accused of it were truthful in
the explanations which they gave of the events which had seemingly
connected them with it. Now, were they? Take the occurrences of that
critical moment when the clock stood at five minutes to twelve. If Mr.
Hildreth is to be believed, he was at that instant in the widow's front
hall musing on his disappointment and arranging his plans for the
future; the tramp, if those who profess to have watched him ar