He related the fact, not generally known, of Mr.Roberts' engagement to a young girl residing on Long Island, and how this was broken off immediately after the occurrence at the museum, seemingly from no other reason than the unhappy condition of mind in which he found himself, a condition added to if not explained by the pertinacity with which he had haunted the morgue and dwelt upon the image of the young girl who had perished under no random shot.
Here the old man paused, shrinking as much from what he had yet to say as they from the hearing of it.

It was not till the Chief Inspector had made him an encouraging gesture that he found the requisite courage to proceed.

He did so, in these words: "I know that the evidence I have thus far advanced is of a purely circumstantial nature, capable, perhaps, of a more or less satisfactory explanation.

But what I have to add cannot be so easily disposed of.
Connections have developed between persons we thought strangers which have opened up a field of inquiry which brings the doubts and surmises of an old detective within the scope of this office.

I do not know what to make of them; perhaps their full meaning can only be found out here.
Of this only I am assured.