, but I
wasn't so bad as that. I did not want to commit bigamy. But I really
held my tongue because Ferruci told me who killed Clear."

"He knew, then?" cried Lucian, "and denied it to me! Who killed the
man?"

"Wrent did--the man who lived in Jersey Street."

"And who is at the bottom of the whole plot!" said Lucian furiously.
"Do you know where he is to be found?"

"Yes," said Lydia boldly, "I do; but I'm not going to tell where he is!"

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want him punished."

"But I do," said Diana angrily. "He is a wretch who ought to suffer!"

"Very well," said Lydia, loudly and spitefully, "then make him suffer,
for this Wrent is your own father! It was Mark who killed Michael
Clear!"

CHAPTER XXIX

LINK SETS A TRAP

In the course of their acquaintance, Diana had put up with a great deal
from the little American adventuress, owing to her position of
stepmother, but when she heard her accusing the man she had ruined of
murder, the patience of Miss Vrain gave way. She rose quickly, and
walking over to where Lydia was shrinking in her chair, towered in
righteous indignation above the shameless little woman.

"You lie, Mrs. Vrain!" she said in a low, distinct voice, with a flushed
face and indignation in her eyes. "You know you lie!"

"I--I only repeat what Ferruci told me," whimpered Lydia, rather alarmed
by the attitude of her stepdaughter. "I'm sure I hope Mark didn't kill
the man, but Ercole said that he was in Jersey Street for that purpose."

"It is not true! My father was in the asylum at Hampstead!"

"Indeed he wasn't--not at the time Clear was killed!" protested Lydia.
"He was not put into the asylum until at least two weeks after
Christmas. Is that not so, Mr. Denzil?"

"It is so," assented Lucian gravely, "but even admitting so much, it is
impossible to believe that Mr. Vrain was in Jersey Street. For many
months before Christmas he was in charge of Mrs. Clear, at Bayswater."

"So Ercole said," replied Lydia, "but he used to get away from Mrs.
Clear at times, and had to be brought back."

"He wandered when he got the chance," said Lucian, with hesitation. "I
admit as much."

"Well, then, when he was not at Bayswater he used to live in Jersey
Street as Wrent. Ferruci found him out there, and tried to get him to go
back, and he took Mrs. Clear several times to the same place in order to
persuade him to return to Bayswater. That was why Mrs. Clear visited
Jersey Stree