After the caller left, a box of sugared violets was found lying temptingly open on a table in the main hall.

Little Cedric is passionately fond of sugared violets, and, had he happened to pass that way before the box was discovered, he surely would have yielded to the temptation and eaten some.

In removing the box the parlour-maid accidentally upset it, and before she could gather all the violets up her ladyship's little Pomeranian dog snapped up one and ate it.

It was dead in six minutes' time! The sweets were simply loaded with prussic acid.

When we came to inquire into the matter in the hope of tracing the mysterious caller, we found that Jane Catherboys was no longer in need of a position; that she had been married for eight months; that she knew nothing whatever of the woman, and had sent no one to inquire into her references." "All of which shows, my dear Cleek," put in Narkom significantly, "that, whatever hand is directing these attempts, it belongs to one who knows more than a mere outsider possibly could: in short, to one who is aware of his little lordship's excessive fondness for sugared violets, and is aware that Lady Chepstow once did have a maid named Jane Catherboys." "If," said Cleek, "you mean to suggest by that that this points suspiciously in Captain Hawksley's direction, Mr.Narkom, permit me to say that it does not necessarily follow.