But he preserved an open mind.

As such reasons go, she was not without reasons, substantial reasons, for getting rid of her husband, and she appeared to him to be a creature of sufficiently delicate sensibilities to feel that husband's brutality more than most women.

At the same time he found it hard to conceive of her using that fatal knife herself.

Yet the knife is most frequently the womanly weapon.
For her part, Olivia liked his face; but she had an uneasy feeling that he would go further than most men in solving any problem with which he set his mind to grapple.
They greeted one another; he sat down in a chair facing the light, though he would have preferred that Olivia should have faced it, and expressed his concern at the trouble which had befallen her.
Then he said: "I came to see you, Lady Loudwater, in the hope that you might be able to throw some light on this deplorable event." "I don't think I can," said Olivia gently.

"But of course, if I can do anything to help you find out about it I shall be very pleased to try." She looked at him with steady, candid eyes that deepened his feeling that she had had no hand in the crime.
"And, of course, I'll make it as little distressing for you as I can," he said.