It was after I left her that I heard what had occurred." "About what time did you get there--I mean to Bitterworth's ?" questioned Mr.Verner, who appeared to have his thoughts filled with other things at that moment than with Sibylla West.
"I cannot be sure," replied Lionel.

"I think it must have been nine o'clock.

I went into Deerham to the post-office, and then came back to Bitterworth's." Mr.Verner mused.
"Lionel," he observed, "it is a curious thing, but there's not one of you but might have been the party to the quarrel that night; so, far as that your time cannot be positively accounted for by minutes and by hours.

I mean, were the accusation brought publicly against you, you would, none of you, be able to prove a distinct _alibi_, as it seems to me.

For instance, who is to prove that you did not, when you were sitting on the terrace, steal across to a rendezvous at the Willow Pond, or cut across to it when you were at the post-office at Deerham ?" "I certainly did _not_," said Lionel quietly, taking the remarks only as they were meant--for an illustration.