And here were two of the utmost importance, not forgotten, but never even thought of.
"Did she go, before the murder, to join a lover?
Or after it?
At some time, you will remember, according to Vauquier's story, she must have run upstairs to fetch her coat.

Was the murder committed during the interval when she was upstairs?
Was the salon dark when she came down again?
Did she run through it quickly, eagerly, noticing nothing amiss?
And, indeed, how should she notice anything if the salon were dark, and Mme.

Dauvray's body lay under the windows at the side ?" Ricardo leaned forward eagerly.
"That must be the truth," he cried; and Wethermill's voice broke hastily in: "It is not the truth and I will tell you why.

Celia Harland was to have married me this week." There was so much pain and misery in his voice that Ricardo was moved as he had seldom been.

Wethermill buried his face in his hands.