'crazy as a loon,' but I remembered in time. William had,
doubtless, long been speechless.

The sherry must have done its fatal work.

This is the worst of committing crimes. They do nothing, very often, but
complicate matters.

Had I not got rid of William--but it was too late for remorse. As to the
evidence of her nurses, I forgot all about _that_. I tried to console
Philippa on another line.

I remarked that, if she had 'gone for' Sir Runan, she had only served
him right.

Then I tried to restore her self-respect by quoting the bearded woman's
letter.

I pointed out that she had been Lady Errand, after all.

This gave Philippa no comfort.

'It makes things worse,' she said. 'I thought I had only got rid of
my betrayer; and now you say I have killed my husband. You men have no
tact.'

'Besides,' Philippa went on, after pausing to reflect, 'I have not
bettered myself one bit. If I had not gone for him I would be Lady
Errand, and no end of a swell, and now I'm only plain Mrs. Basil South.'
Speaking thus, Philippa wept afresh, and refused to be comforted.

Her remarks were not flattering to my self-esteem.

At this time I felt, with peculiar bitterness, the blanks in Philippa's
memory. Nothing is more difficult than to make your heroine not too mad,
but just mad enough.

Had Philippa been a trifle saner, or less under the influence of
luncheon, at first, she would either never have murdered Sir Runan at
all (which perhaps would have been the best course), or she would have
known _how_ she murdered him.

The entire absence of information on this head added much to my
perplexities.

On the other hand, had Philippa been a trifle madder, or _more_ under
the influence of luncheon, nothing could ever have recalled the event to
her memory at all.

As it is, my poor wife (if she _was_ my wife, a subject on which I
intend to submit a monograph to a legal contemporary), my poor wife was
almost provoking in what she forgot and what she remembered.

One day as my dear patient was creeping about the _patio_, she asked me
if I saw _all_ the papers?

I said I saw most of them.

'Well, look at them _all_, for who knows how many may be boycotted by
the present Government? In a boycotted print you don't know but you may
miss an account of how some fellow was hanged for what I did. I believe
two people can't be executed for the same crime. Now, if any one swings
for Sir Runan, _I_ am safe; but it might happen, and