upstairs to-day, Janet? I have something about which I
want to consult you."

And then, when they had sat down, Miss Pendarth said abruptly: "While I
was in Essex I came across some people who had been acquainted with Mrs.
Crofton and her husband."

Janet looked across at the speaker with some surprise. "What an odd
thing!" she exclaimed, and she did think it rather odd.

But Olivia Pendarth was a very honest woman--too honest, some people
might have said. "It was not exactly odd," she said quickly, "for, to
tell you the truth, I made it my business while there to make certain
enquiries about the Croftons. In fact, I partly went to Essex for that
purpose, though I did not tell my friends so."

The visitor felt rather shocked, as well as surprised. Surely Olivia
Pendarth's interest in her neighbours' concerns was, to say the least
of it, excessive. But the other's next words modified her censorious
thoughts.

"Colonel Crofton and one of my brothers were in the same regiment
together. I knew him quite well when he and I were both young, and when
Miss Crofton came to see her sister-in-law a fortnight ago, I offered to
make certain enquiries for her."

There was a touch of mystery, of hesitation in the older lady's voice,
and Janet Tosswill "rose" as she was perhaps meant to do. "What sort of
enquiries?" she asked. "I thought Miss Crofton was on the best of terms
with her sister-in-law."

"So she is; but she wanted to know more than Mrs. Crofton was inclined to
tell her about the circumstances--the really extraordinary circumstances,
Janet--concerning Colonel Crofton's death. And now I'm rather in a
quandary as to whether I ought to tell her what I heard, and indeed as to
whether I ought even to send her the report of the inquest which appeared
in a local paper, and which I at last managed to secure."

"Of course I know that Colonel Crofton committed suicide." Janet Tosswill
lowered her voice instinctively. "That poor, second-rate little woman
seems to have told Rosamund as much, and Godfrey Radmore confirmed it."

"Yes, I suppose one ought to say that there is no real doubt that he
committed suicide." Yet Miss Pendarth's voice seemed to imply that there
was some doubt.

She went on: "It was suggested at the inquest that the chemist who made
up a certain heart tonic Colonel Crofton had been in the habit of taking
for some time, had put in a far larger dose of strychnine than was
right."

Janet Tosswill repeate