But, for all that, I have to remember that he and he alone would benefit by Cedric's death, and--and--wicked as it seems--Oh, Mr.Cleek, help me! Direct me! Sometimes I doubt him.

Sometimes I doubt everybody.

Sometimes I think of those other days, that other mystery, that land which reeks of them; and then--and then--Oh, that horrible Ceylon! I wish I had never set foot in it in all my life!" Her agitation and distress were so great as to make her utterances only half coherent; and Ailsa, realising that this sort of thing must only perplex Cleek, and leave him in the dark regarding the matter upon which they had come to consult him, gently interposed.
"Do try to calm yourself and to tell the story as briefly as possible, dear Lady Chepstow," she advised.

Then, taking the initiative, added quietly, "It begins, Mr.Cleek, at a period when his little lordship, whose governess I have the honour to be, was but two years old, and at Trincomalee, where his late father was stationed with his regiment four years ago.

Somebody, for some absurd reason, had set afoot a ridiculous rumour that the English had received orders from the Throne to stamp out every religion but their own--in short, if the British were not exterminated, dreadful desecrations would occur, as they were determined--" "To loot all the temples erected to Buddha, destroy the images, and make a bonfire of all the sacred relics," finished Cleek himself.