He and Locksley--" "Richard," interrupted his sister, in a hushed voice, "mamma entertains one fixed idea, which she cannot put from her.

She is certain that Bethel had something to do with the murder." "Then she is wrong.

Why should she think so ?" "How the conviction arose at first, I cannot tell you; I do not think she knows herself.

But you remember how weak and fanciful she is, and since that dreadful night she is always having what she calls 'dreams'-- meaning that she dreams of the murder.

In all these dreams Bethel is prominent; and she says she feels an absolute certainty that he was, in some way or other, mixed up in it." "Barbara, he was no more mixed up in it than you." "And--you say that you were not ?" "I was not even at the cottage at the time; I swear it to you.