well. I suspected it
from the first."

"Maxwell!" Mr. Hammersmith's cheek showed an indignant colour. Or was it
a reflection from the setting sun? "You called him a scamp a few minutes
ago. A scamp's word isn't worth much."

"No, but it's evidence when on oath, and I fancy he will swear to the
interview."

"Well, well, say there was an interview."

"It changes things, Mr. Hammersmith. It changes things. It makes
possible a certain theory of mine which accounts for all the facts."

"It does!"

"Yes. I don't think this girl is really responsible. I don't believe she
struck her mother or is deliberately telling a tissue of lies to cover
up some dreadful crime. I consider her the victim of a mental
hallucination, the result of some great shock. Now what was the shock?
I'll tell you. This is how I see it, how Mr. Quimby sees it, and such
others in the house as have ventured an opinion. She was having this
conversation with her lover in the woods below here when her mother came
in sight. Surprised, for she had evidently not expected her mother to be
so prompt, she hustled her lover off and hastened to meet the
approaching figure. But it was too late. The mother had seen the man,
and in the excitement of the discovery and the altercation which
undoubtedly followed, made such a sudden move, possibly of indignant
departure, that her foot was caught by one of the roots protruding at
this point and she fell her whole length and with such violence as to
cause immediate death. Now, Mr. Hammersmith, stop a minute and grasp the
situation. If, as I believe at this point in the inquiry, Miss Demarest
had encountered a passionate opposition to her desires from this upright
and thoughtful mother, the spectacle of this mother lying dead before
her, with all opposition gone and the way cleared in an instant to her
wishes, but cleared in a manner which must haunt her to her own dying
day, was enough to turn a brain already heated with contending emotions.
Fancies took the place of facts, and by the time she reached this house
had so woven themselves into a concrete form that no word she now utters
can be relied on. This is how I see it, Mr. Hammersmith, and it is on
this basis I shall act."

Hammersmith made an effort and, nodding slightly, said in a restrained
tone:

"Perhaps you are justified. I have no wish to force my own ideas upon
you; they are much too vague at present. I will only suggest that this
is not the first time th