And afterwards I learned from the medical evidence that your husband must have been dead at that time; one thing I knew, and that was that he was not shot during the next hour and more, for I waited about until half-past two in the hope that he would come out.

I was not going to ring and bring you down again, for I had seen your face, and I still saw your light upstairs." "So you thought I had come down to see my handiwork!" "To see if he was really dead.

Yes, I thought that afterwards.

I could not help thinking it, Rachel." "Did it never occur to you that I might have thought he was asleep ?" "Yes, that has struck me since." "You have not thought me guilty all along, then ?" "Not all along." "Did you right through my trial ?" "God forgive me--yes, I did! And there was one thing that convinced me more than anything else; that was when you told the jury that the occasion of your final parting upstairs was the last time you saw poor Alec alive." "But it was," said Rachel.

"I remember the question.