ttered a little laugh of impatience. 'So you think he has been
talking me round. No, that is not so. I am merely sure he did not do it.
Ah! I see you think that absurd. But see how unreasonable you are, Mr
Trent! Just now you were explaining to me quite sincerely that it was
foolishness in you to have a certain suspicion of me after seeing me and
being in my atmosphere, as you said.' Trent started in his chair. She
glanced at him, and went on: 'Now, I and my atmosphere are much obliged
to you, but we must stand up for the rights of other atmospheres. I know
a great deal more about Mr Marlowe's atmosphere than you know about mine
even now. I saw him constantly for several years. I don't pretend to
know all about him; but I do know that he is incapable of a crime of
bloodshed. The idea of his planning a murder is as unthinkable to me as
the idea of your picking a poor woman's pocket, Mr Trent. I can imagine
you killing a man, you know... if the man deserved it and had an
equal chance of killing you. I could kill a person myself in some
circumstances. But Mr Marlowe was incapable of doing it, I don't care
what the provocation might be. He had a temper that nothing could shake,
and he looked upon human nature with a sort of cold magnanimity that
would find excuses for absolutely anything. It wasn't a pose; you could
see it was a part of him. He never put it forward, but it was there
always. It was quite irritating at times.... Now and then in America, I
remember, I have heard people talking about lynching, for instance, when
he was there. He would sit quite silent and expressionless, appearing
not to listen; but you could feel disgust coming from him in waves. He
really loathed and hated physical violence. He was a very strange man in
some ways, Mr Trent. He gave one a feeling that he might do unexpected
things--do you know that feeling one has about some people? What part
he really played in the events of that night I have never been able to
guess. But nobody who knew anything about him could possibly believe in
his deliberately taking a man's life.' Again the movement of her head
expressed finality, and she leaned back in the sofa, calmly regarding
him.

'Then,' said Trent, who had followed this with earnest attention, 'we
are forced back on two other possibilities, which I had not thought
worth much consideration until this moment. Accepting what you say, he
might still conceivably have killed in self-defence; or he might