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肩書を与える: The 嵐／襲撃する Breaks
Author: Arthur Gask
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The 嵐／襲撃する Breaks

by

Arthur Gask

First UK 調書をとる／予約する 版: Herbert Jenkins Ltd., London, 1949

This e-調書をとる／予約する 版: 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg Australia, 2020

"The 嵐／襲撃する Breaks," Herbert Jenkins Ltd., London, 1949

THE STORY

AN attractive and aristocratic-looking girl of 明らかに やめる ordinary origin has always had good 推論する／理由 to believe she was not the daughter of her mother's husband. Losing both her parents, she 捜し出すs her fortune in London, makes her way into the social world and marries into a 肩書を与えるd family. Then, through no fault of her own, she becomes 伴う／関わるd in the death of a scoundrel who was 試みる／企てるing to ゆすり，恐喝 her. Thanks to the help of the one-time 広大な／多数の／重要な 探偵，刑事, Gilbert Larose, she at first eludes the 法律, though Scotland Yard is やめる 確かな that she is the 有罪の woman.

Move and 反対する move follow in 早い succession 権利 up to the thrilling and 劇の 最高潮 of one of Arthur Gask's most 著名な novels.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. — RECOMPENSE

"MR. LAROSE," said the aristocratic-looking young woman, with a choke in her 発言する／表明する, "I have come to you for advice. Two days ago I killed a man. He attacked me and had been ーするつもりであるing to ゆすり，恐喝 me. His 団体／死体 lies hidden in a pond. Should I give myself up to the police, or say nothing in the hope that I may not be 設立する out? You remember me, don't you? We met at Blackston Manor a little while ago."

It would be difficult for the 世代 of to-day, or even, perhaps, for middle-老年の people, to realise the social 条件s 勝つ／広く一帯に広がるing in England sixty to seventy years ago. It was an age of class-distinctions appalling in their bitterness and stupidity.

The いわゆる upper classes regarded all who were not born to lives of idleness and 楽しみ as 存在 of different flesh and 血 from those who had to work for their living; and, looking 支援する now, it seems almost incredible that their snobbery and exclusiveness could have been of such a silly and childish nature.

Those engaged in 貿易（する） in any form were never 認める to society or considered 適格の to be 現在のd at 法廷，裁判所. The disadvantage, too, of their father's calling was passed 負かす／撃墜する to the children, and boys whose fathers owned 商売／仕事s were automatically debarred from many of our best public schools, with their social inferiority 存在 rubbed into them during all their adolescent years.

In country towns this 勝つ／広く一帯に広がるing snobbishness was even worse than in the big towns, but it was not without its humorous 味方する. There—families high up in the social 規模 might be 深く，強烈に in 負債 to the 地元の tradespeople, but it was considered to be やめる all 権利 to pretend not to see them, or 削減（する） them dead when they were met out in the street. 承認, it was believed, would have been lowering to the dignity of those who 所有するd birth and 産む／飼育するing.

As for the 労働ing classes, the contempt in which so many held them was exemplified by a story 現在の then of a 肩書を与えるd young lady of 極端に 古代の lineage who took to herself a husband of an 平等に exalted birth and, gratified with the 特権s of married life, is said to have 発言／述べるd to her husband, "And is marriage the same for the ありふれた people, Adolphus, because, if so, it is much too good for them!"

With the nation divided into the historic upper, middle and lower classes, the snobbery of the upper one in turn 影響する／感情d the middle one, now, however, taking on an 完全に different form, as it was the 所有／入手 of money there which so 解除するd a man above his fellows. Anyone with a shilling in his pocket regarded himself as 大いに superior to one with only sixpence. So it followed therefore that the 湾 between the 井戸／弁護士席-to-do and poorer middle class was every bit as wide and 深い as that between the people of society and those engaged in 商業. In middle-class circles it was a man's income, every time, which 決定するd his position in his social world.

Mary Hinks's father was a &続けざまに猛撃する;4-a-week clerk in a 会社／堅い of 卸売 clothiers in the city, and, though his salary was considered やめる a good one, he mixed neither with those who were 収入 more nor with those 収入 いっそう少なく.

With a wife and six children, the family lived in Manor Park, an East End 郊外 of London の近くに to Wanstead Flats, and enjoyed, or rather 耐えるd, the usual 淡褐色 monotonous lives ありふれた to those in their position in the comparatively speaking uneventful years from the late 'seventies almost to the coming of the first 広大な／多数の／重要な War.

There were no pictures in those days; theatres were far too much a 高級な for families with small means, and music-halls were considered as 妥当でない for young people. In consequence, a concert arranged by the church the Hinkses …に出席するd, a very 時折の jaunt by tram to Epping Forest, or a rare visit to the Zoo, were the main 最高潮の場面s of their 存在, and, with so few outside 利益／興味s for the parents, it was not to be wondered at that the Hinks children were so generously begotten.

The Hinks family, as with the 広大な／多数の／重要な 大多数 of their class, was eminently respectable, 適合するing religiously to all the 条約s of the day. Neatly, though it might have been 貧しく, dressed, and with clean 手渡すs and 直面するs and hair nicely 小衝突d, all who were old enough to go …に出席するd church twice every Sunday. Mr. Hinks did not 断言する or bet or たびたび（訪れる） public houses, and his only 高級なs were his 麻薬を吸う and morning and evening papers.

The Sunday paper was read 排他的に by Mrs. Hinks and himself. It was invariably kept out of the way of the younger members of the family.

At that time 離婚 事例／患者s were fully 報告（する）／憶測d, and when the 離婚 法廷，裁判所s were sitting the Sunday papers vied with one another in 供給するing 十分な and spicy 詳細（に述べる）s for their readers. So, with 離婚 almost wholly the 特権 of the 豊富な classes, "What the footman saw through the 割れ目 in the blinds," and "What the butler heard through the keyhole," often 構成するd the general type of headlines.

The 激しい 利益／興味 the middle classes always showed in the doings of the classes above them was also catered for by a very lively red-covered 中央の-週刊誌 定期刊行物 known as Modern Society, and within reach of everyone at the price of one penny. It had a very wide 循環／発行部数 and, from backstairs （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） and kitchen tittle-tattle undoubtedly 供給（する）d by the 国内の staff of 確かな of 'the 広大な／多数の／重要な houses', it was 悪名高い for its スキャンダル and innuendoes about many society people.

Now it cannot be too 堅固に 主張するd that, with all their smug respectability and 狭くする-mindedness, 権利 負かす／撃墜する from the Victorian 時代 the middle classes had been the very backbone of the country's morality. Their eldest born did not arrive until the proper time, their marriage 公約するs were rarely broken, and their daughters, in course of time, entered matrimony in the virgin 明言する／公表する.

It is true that in their days of adolescence the male scions of the family often 始める，決める their feet upon unlawful and forbidden ways, but it seemed to be a point of honour with them never to bring misfortune upon a girl of their own class. In the main it was the servant girl who was their 的, she 存在 held to be good 追跡（する）ing, and materfamilias with a pretty one in her service had to keep a vigilant and unclosing 注目する，もくろむ upon the youthful males of the family.

Mrs. Hinks, however, was spared all 苦悩 there, as she was never 井戸／弁護士席 enough off to keep a maid. Always in poor health, she kept Mary, the eldest of the children, at home to be the family help. A girl of gentle disposition and uncomplaining nature, though she would certainly have much preferred to go out and earn her own living, Mary did not 不平（をいう） and 受託するd the 条件s as a 事柄 of course.

Her father was as generous with her as he could afford to be and, when eighteen years of age, she was receiving the 週刊誌 行う of five shillings. With this she had to dress herself and 供給する all 高級なs such as 甘いs, papers and 調書をとる／予約するs. With 調書をとる／予約するs she did not trouble much, but she always bought two 週刊誌 papers, one, the Family 先触れ（する）, a 週刊誌 fiction magazine of twenty-four pages which could be 購入（する）d for a penny, and another, 屈服する Bells Novelette, at the same price. This latter magazine was not high-class, but for all that was most 満足させるing for those sentimentally inclined. A monotonous life Mary's might certainly have been, but it was one 耐えるd by many hundreds of thousands such as she, and never having known anything different they did not complain.

Of medium 高さ and decidedly pretty, with her perfect little 人物／姿／数字, she was undoubtedly an attractive girl. She always looked fresh and clean and had a nice colouring, a good complexion and frank, （疑いを）晴らす blue 注目する，もくろむs.

Her father, however, was very strict and never 許すd her out at night. 追加するd to that, he 主張するd they were not 井戸／弁護士席 enough off to entertain and, moreover, the house was not large enough for company. Accordingly, Mary had no 適切な時期s of making friends.

Of course she had her dreams and hoped that one day she would make a good marriage and perhaps—oh, how beautiful the thought was—live in the country の中で the trees and flowers. Then she would keep fowls and ducks and might even have a pony and 罠（にかける）!

When she was approaching her twentieth birthday it seemed to her that her chance had come at last, though there was certainly not much romance about it. A man nearly as old as her father fell violently in love with her, and 存在 in a good position with a good salary, her parents also 支援 him up, had little difficulty in 説得するing her to become his wife.

By 指名する of Birtle Dane, he was やめる ordinary-looking, with a long and rather solemn 直面する and 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な, unsmiling 注目する，もくろむs. She made his 知識 one August Bank Holiday when her father, in a burst of extravagance, had taken the whole family 負かす／撃墜する to Southend for the day.

They first noticed him when, after their picnic meal, the children and Mary were building 城s upon the sands. He was seated upon the promenade above them and seemed 利益／興味d in watching all they were doing. Presently he walked 負かす／撃墜する to them and, raising his hat politely, asked if Mr. Hinks would kindly tell him the time, as he did not think his own watch was 訂正する.

A conversation 続いて起こるd, he admired the children and 発言／述べるd how healthy they all looked, and 表明するd surprise to learn that they did not always live by the sea, but, as with himself, were only excursionists 負かす／撃墜する for the day. It was remembered afterwards that, though it was mostly about the children he talked, his 注目する，もくろむs never left Mary for very long. And certainly she was 価値（がある） looking at, with her blue 注目する，もくろむs sparkling in 活気／アニメーション, her 直面する so delicately 紅潮／摘発するd by her exertions and her pretty hair looking its best under the 有望な sun.

Presently, this agreeable stranger 示唆するd that he and Mr. Hinks should stroll away in search of some liquid refreshment, and in the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 of the Grand Hotel more conversation 続いて起こるd, 指名するs and 演説（する）／住所s were 交流d in the most friendly way, and to his astonishment Mr. Hinks learnt that his new 知識 was staying not a mile away from Manor Park, indeed やめる 近づく in Forest Gate.

At length returning to the family, Mr. Dane passed the 残り／休憩（する） of the afternoon with them, and finally returned to town in the same 鉄道 carriage.

He told them やめる a lot about himself, how he was only upon a holiday in England, how his work lay with a big 会社／堅い of ワイン merchants in the wonderful city of Bordeaux and how, as a bachelor, he lived in a big house upon the bank of the beautiful Garonne river, and was looked after by a housekeeper with a maid under her. Life in フラン, he said, was much brighter and gayer than in England.

In parting he asked if he might call one evening at Manor Park and continue the conversation; he knew no one but his mother with whom he was staying in Forest Gate and he was very lonely.

許可 存在 readily given—Mr. Hinks had been 大いに impressed with his 繁栄する 外見—he called the に引き続いて evening, and from the very first there was no 疑問 that it was Mary who was his main attraction. He took her and Mrs. Hinks to see his mother, and later Mary went alone with him to Madame Tussaud's and several theatres. The young girl was thrilled at the attention she was receiving, and when one night they had the three-and-sixpenny dinner at the Holborn Restaurant, and she sat listening to the soft and gentle 緊張するs of the orchestra, she was sure that at last she was indeed seeing life.

It was a whirlwind courtship, with the 最高潮 coming one evening only ten days after she had first come to know her ardent admirer. With the 黙認 of her parents, she 設立する herself alone with Dane, and in their shabby little parlour, with his 発言する／表明する choking in his 切望, he asked her to become his wife.

She had been 警告するd by her mother what was coming and, demurely turning 負かす／撃墜する her 注目する，もくろむs in the fashion 認可するd of in the 屈服する Bells Novelette, whispered that she would.

She knew やめる 井戸／弁護士席 she was not in love with him, as she was experiencing 非，不，無 of those exquisite feelings which, again によれば the 屈服する Bells Novelette, should have been running up and 負かす／撃墜する her spine at such a thrilling moment. She was just 同意ing to marry him to get away from the 淡褐色 and dull monotony of her life at Manor Park.

In the joyful excitement of buying new 着せる／賦与するs she gave 事実上 no thought to the sex 味方する of marriage.

As Dane's holiday was quickly running out, they were married by special licence at the church in Manor Park. When the 儀式 was over, as there was no 歓迎会 に引き続いて, they were driven straightway to the Regent Palace Hotel where they were to stay until the morrow when they would take the boat-train to Southampton and sail for Bordeaux.

For Mary Dane, ignorant and all unprepared, the 犠牲者 of her parents' reticence and prudery, the beginning of her wedded life was a 広大な／多数の／重要な shock to her, when what marriage really meant burst like a clap of 雷鳴 upon her.

She had sold her young 団体／死体, with all its 可能性s of ecstasy and passion, for the sixteen thousand フランs a year which was her husband's salary, the big house upon the banks of the Garonne and the servants who went with it! All romance for her was finished, and she would never know the fulfilment of those 猛烈な／残忍な hopes and longings which, she had so often read, were the heaven-sent gifts to all young life!

An angry 憤慨 殺到するd through her. Her father and mother should never have encouraged her to marry such a husband. They had sold her like a slave, just as if their only thought had been to get rid of her as quickly as they could.

The next day they boarded the boat for Bordeaux, and to her 広大な／多数の／重要な delight Mary 設立する herself to be a good sailor, やめる 影響を受けない by the rough sea they 遭遇（する）d 直接／まっすぐに they reached open water. Everything was most enjoyable for her and she was able to go 負かす／撃墜する to all the meals. Not so her husband, however, as he started 存在 sick at once and, during the whole crossing, lay moaning and groaning in their cabin. A dreadful green colour, with his 直面する all sunken in without his dental plates, he looked a horrible, unsavoury old man, and poor Mary shuddered as she thought that now he was always going to be her bedfellow.

When 結局 they arrived at Bordeaux, Dane was so exhausted that he had almost to be carried off the boat, and Mary realised only too 井戸／弁護士席 that a time of tribulation for her had begun.

Then followed three very unhappy years for her when she never 中止するd to 悔いる her foolish and 迅速な marriage. Certainly at first her husband had made a 広大な／多数の／重要な fuss over her and shown himself thrilled in her 所有／入手. However, it had not lasted very long, and very soon his middle-老年の passion had begun to 旗, within a few months manifesting itself in only very 時折の short and sharp ゆらめくs-up which were never anything but most 苦しめるing to her.

With his 利益／興味 in his wife 病弱なing, his character was soon to show itself in a very different light from the courteous and so charming suitor of Manor Park. His temper was exceedingly irritable and he was mean and petty in many ways, 推定する／予想するing Mary to account for every sou he gave her. Also, in a surly and いじめ（る）ing fashion, he 推定する／予想するd her to 落ちる in line with all his 確認するd bachelor habits.

Meals must never be one minute late, and the food was monotonous in its 欠如（する） of variety and only consisted of what he himself fancied. Mary 悩ますd him 大いに, too, by showing no 評価 of good ワイン and always preferred, as he styled them, horrible cups of tea, taken at all hours of the day whenever she could 得る them.

A hypochondriac of long standing, he was always imagining he was upon the 瀬戸際 of some serious illness and for ever dosing himself with different 麻薬s. Upon the slightest 冷淡な in the 長，率いる, Mary had to put poultice after poultice upon his chest to 妨げる, as he said, things getting worse. He had a horror of draughts of fresh 空気／公表する of any 肉親，親類d, and wherever he was, both night and day, the doors and windows had to be kept shut.

The house and 国内の 手はず／準備, too, were disappointing to Mary, not 存在 upon anything like so grand a 規模 as her husband had made out. It was true he lived in a large house of three stories, but the whole of the ground 床に打ち倒す was 占領するd by the 商売／仕事 part of the 会社／堅い. Then, the housekeeper and maid he had spoken of were really nothing more than two general servants. They were two sisters, the 年上の of them only about seven and twenty, and 同様に as …に出席するing to the 居住の part they 行為／法令／行動するd as cleaners to the offices. They were hard 労働者s, doing much more, Mary thought, than any English servants would have done, getting up at five every morning and at work 負かす／撃墜する below again every evening after the clerks had gone.

Dane had no friends, and no strangers were ever brought in to meals. He hardly ever went out, and 推定する／予想するd Mary to lead the same uninteresting and monotonous life. Even when he had 明らかに lost all 利益／興味 in her, he was yet 極端に jealous, introducing her to as few people as possible, and after she had returned from her daily walk, never failing to ask where she had been, to whom she had spoken and whom she had seen.

From the very first the two maids, Jeanne and Lucille, had been most 肉親，親類d to her and anxious to do anything they could for her. They smiled all over their 有望な red 直面するs whenever they saw her, and, even before she had 選ぶd up enough French words to 持つ／拘留する any conversation with them, she realised from their manner how sorry they were for her. When Dane was not upstairs it was a 広大な／多数の／重要な joke with them to bring her many cups of the so discredited and almost forbidden cups of tea. She knew it was a wonder to them how she had ever come to marry their master.

Another 悲しみ for Mary was that Dane was deliberately 試みる／企てるing to 削減（する） her away from her family. He would not 許す her to return to England for the briefest of holidays, and when she once timidly 示唆するd he should 招待する her father or two of the older children to visit her, he 辞退するd so disagreeably that she never dared ask him again.

So was Mary, after three years of married life, a sad and dispirited woman, her vivacity and brightness all gone, living a dull and monotonous life with 明らかに no hopes whatever of any happiness in the 未来. いつかs she used to look in the mirror and think how old and worn she was growing. No wonder, she would sigh, for she had nothing 価値（がある） living for, and to put a 栄冠を与える upon her 悲惨 her 良心 told her she had come to 前向きに／確かに hate her husband. She loathed the very sight of him.

Then, suddenly, and as if at last in pity for her, 運命／宿命 opened a window in the clouds and romance （機の）カム into her life, real romance such as she had read of in those far-off days in the 屈服する Bells Novelette.

She first met him one sunny afternoon in the public gardens. She was sitting upon one of the seats there, idly watching the ducks swimming in the ornamental water, when she noticed a young fellow passing by and it struck her at once how handsome he was. She 裁判官d him to be a little older than herself. He was 精製するd and distinguished looking, with his 表現, however, やめる a boyish one. He was walking slowly and she 公式文書，認めるd he gave her a quick appraising ちらりと見ること as he passed.

He did not go very far away, but, turning to retrace his steps and 製図／抽選 level with her, raised his hat politely and asked if she would very kindly tell him the time. He spoke in French and she replied in the same language, though her words were 停止（させる）ing and she knew her accent was not good.

"Oh, you're English!" he exclaimed with a 有望な smile. "I thought so when I passed just now. I'm English, too. Do you mind if I have a little 雑談（する） with you? It's so nice to speak in one's own language for a change."

He seated himself 負かす／撃墜する and やめる an animated little conversation followed, or rather the 活気／アニメーション was at first almost 完全に upon his 味方する. Mary was shy and 混乱させるd, though 大いに thrilled he should have thought her attractive enough to want to speak to her. Still, 徐々に, she lost her shyness and could look him straight in the 直面する without getting hot.

He told her he had come from London upon a holiday, but he knew no one in Bordeaux and didn't find it so much fun as he had thought it would be, 存在 all by himself. He never had been a 広大な／多数の／重要な one for sight-seeing. In return, Mary told him she, too, was a Londoner, and in many ways would rather be living there now, but then, she 追加するd with a blush, she was married, and her husband having his work here, of course there was no help for it.

The conversation lasted only a few minutes, and then he left her with the smiling hope that perhaps he might be seeing her again in the next day or two, as he 一般に （機の）カム to the gardens in the afternoon.

Of course he did see her again. Mary had lain awake half the night thinking of him, and the に引き続いて afternoon had seated herself upon the same seat, almost 正確に／まさに at the same time. She learnt afterwards that he had been watching from の中で the trees, and he （機の）カム up to her within a couple of minutes of her arrival.

Their conversation was more personal this time. They 交流d 指名するs, and she thought how 井戸／弁護士席 his unusual Christian 指名する of Athol ふさわしい him. It had such a distinguished sound. He told her he had just come 負かす／撃墜する from Cambridge where he had taken his degree. He had not yet made up his mind what 占領／職業 to follow.

In return, Mary told him something of herself, how she had come to Bordeaux as a bride three years ago, and had seen 非，不，無 of her relations since. She had no real friends in フラン and often felt very lonely. She had no little ones and it was something of a grief to her she was so far from home. She often felt very lonely.

They met again the next day, and after a few minutes' talk Athol 示唆するd they go for a little walk. For a few moments Mary hesitated, but then replied with a 確かな （軽い）地震 in her 発言する／表明する, "All 権利, but up the other end of the gardens, please." She laughed a little nervously. "You see, my husband is much older than I and might be annoyed if he （機の）カム to know about it. He is rather old-fashioned in his ways."

"Oh, you'll be やめる 安全な with me," laughed 支援する Athol, "I wouldn't eat you, though the prospect there"—he gave her an admiring ちらりと見ること—"might be by no means an unpleasant one."

They had their little walk の中で the trees, 交流ing more 信用／信任s as they went along. Mary was thrilled at 存在 alone with him and 確かな now that no inquisitive 注目する，もくろむs were watching them. Their 行為／行う, however, could not have been more 訂正する, as Athol 扱う／治療するd her with the greatest 尊敬（する）・点 and never 投機・賭けるd upon the slightest familiarity. Even when once he took her 手渡す to help her over a stile, he did not 持つ／拘留する it for the fraction of a second longer than was necessary. Mary was very sorry when at length she had to hurry away to be home before half-past five. Beyond that time things might be ぎこちない, as, if her husband （機の）カム upstairs, and 設立する her away, he might become curious and start 尋問 her. She knew only too 井戸／弁護士席 how easily she gave herself away.

So things went on for a fortnight. They met every afternoon somewhere, but with no 明らかな warming up of their relations. Of course, by now she had told him all about her unhappy marriage, but to all 外見s he had only the deepest sympathy for her loveless life.

As for Mary—she had 明らかに no deeper feelings for him than he had for her. It had just been a 救済 to her to tell her troubles to someone who she was sure would feel sorry for her. She knew it must be that he would quickly pass out of her life again, but it would remain for ever an がまんするing and 心にいだくd memory that someone had once been so 肉親，親類d and understanding.

Thus was everything upon the surface, but underneath and in their reality things were very different. In no way a philanderer and never having had much to do with the other sex, for this lonely and unhappy little woman Athol had come to conceive a 深い and 熱烈な regard, and he longed to take her in his 武器 and 慰安 her in the way only a lover could.

As for Mary, she made no pretence to herself that she was not 深く，強烈に in love with this good-looking and kindly-natured boy. 関わりなく all 条約s and her marriage 公約するs, she would have given herself to him with no care of any consequences. He was in her thoughts night and day, and she was dreading the time that must so soon come when he would be leaving her. She felt as she imagined a 非難するd 犯罪の would feel when を待つing the morning of his 死刑執行. 支援する she would go to 悲惨 and loneliness, and her unhappiness, she was sure, would now be the more poignant as she had at last learnt what love really meant for such a few short hours before it was going to be snatched from her.

One afternoon a 猛烈な／残忍な 雷雨 （機の）カム over the city and, as they were 近づく a big church at the time, they took 避難 in it until the rain was over. The light was very 薄暗い inside and they appeared to be the only persons 現在の. They seated themselves in one of the pews and started whispering together.

Presently a verger appeared from the direction of the vestry, and as he passed by several times Athol thought he 注目する，もくろむd them curiously. So slipping a couple of フランs into his 手渡す, he asked him what time evensong was held. The man told him and then, with a pleasant smile, 示唆するd they should go and sit in the lady chapel. "You will be out of the draughts there, Monsieur," he said, "and can whisper as much as you want to without 乱すing anybody."

So they moved their seats to where he led them behind a big 中心存在, and 直接／まっすぐに he had gone Athol 発言／述べるd carelessly, "A very understanding man that"—his 発言する／表明する shook ever so little—"and at last I've got you all to myself." He gave a quick ちらりと見ること 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to make sure that no one could see them and then, without a moment's hesitation, put his arm 一連の会議、交渉／完成する Mary and, 製図／抽選 her to him, gave her a long and ぐずぐず残る kiss 十分な upon the lips.

There was no 製図／抽選 支援する on Mary's 味方する, and she was as ready with her kiss as he was with his. For many minutes no words passed between them. Time stood still and they were just man and woman in the first ecstasies of the avowal of their passion.

All about them so lent itself to their mood. The dark church was so hushed and still that they might almost have been alone in the world together. They had no thoughts except about each other. Past and 未来 meant nothing to them and they lived only in the 現在の.

Soon the soft 公式文書，認めるs of the 組織／臓器 broke through their dreams, and 手渡す in 手渡す they sat through the evening service. When it was over they left the building with the friendly verger giving them a 別れの（言葉，会） beaming smile.

The next morning Dane 発表するd he had caught a 冷気／寒がらせる. His 気温 was わずかに up and he stayed in bed. Mary had a hurried 会合 with Athol, which she snatched upon going out to the 化学者／薬剤師's.

Athol had bad news for her and she thought her heart would stop （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing when she heard it. He had received a 電報電信 and would have to leave for home by the 早期に morning's boat on the morrow.

"But I must say good-bye to you, darling," he pleaded. "Couldn't you get out and 会合，会う me to-night? I have such a lot of things I want to say to you."

For a long moment Mary hesitated. "I might," she replied, feeling very 脅すd at the thought, "but it'll have to be very late. He's always （犯罪の）一味ing his bell for me, and I can't come until he's 井戸／弁護士席 asleep. I shall have to wait, too, until the maids are in bed. Then it mustn't be far away, as I can't be out for more than ten minutes."

So it was arranged they should 会合，会う on one of the quays only about three hundred yards distant from the house, at eleven o'clock, and he was to wait for her until one. If she were not there by then he'd know something had 妨げるd her getting out.

She had a terribly anxious time all the evening, and thought her husband would never 減少（する） off to sleep, but at last, after 井戸／弁護士席 麻薬ing himself with his tablets, he did, and at nearly half-past eleven, muffling her 長，率いる in a shawl lest she might be recognised, she slipped out, leaving the catch of the street door up so that she could get in again.

Then it seemed as if all possible ill-fortune was dogging the lovers, for a boat was coming up the river and there were a lot of people about. 追加するd to that a 強い雨 嵐／襲撃する 始める，決める in and there was no place where they could take 避難所 and be alone. Their 着せる／賦与するs were soon wet through.

So, very reluctantly and in 広大な／多数の／重要な 失望, Mary decided she could not stay out any longer and must return home. Athol 主張するd upon …を伴ってing her to the door so that he might be able to snatch a last kiss.

At the very moment, however, when they reached the door, they saw two men coming up the street from the opposite direction and Mary exclaimed in 広大な／多数の／重要な fright, "Oh, I'm sure that big one there is our porter! Quick, come inside! He mustn't see us standing here," and, hurriedly 開始 the door, she dragged Athol in and の近くにd the door behind him.

For a few moments they stood in the 不明瞭 with bent 長，率いるs and 持つ／拘留するing their breath, listening. The footsteps and 発言する／表明するs passed and Athol whispered gleefully, "Just what we 手配中の，お尋ね者! It couldn't be better," and he made to take Mary in his 武器.

"No, not here," she whispered 支援する. Her 発言する／表明する shook. "Wait—let me think."

Her thinking, however, was very short, and she felt for his 手渡す in the 不明瞭 and pulled at it to lead him up the passage. "I know it's very wicked," she choked, "but I don't care what happens now you're leaving me. But oh, do tread so carefully on the stairs. We'll have to pass his room—and the door's open—to get to 地雷."

It was a fearsome 旅行 and both their hearts were in their mouths, but at length they reached the safety of Mary's room. She 押し進めるd the door to very 静かに. "I dare not shut it," she whispered, "in 事例／患者 his bell （犯罪の）一味s. But reach up and take out that globe. Then we shall feel safer," and with 手渡すs that trembled violently, she began stripping off her wet 着せる／賦与するs.

Mary awoke with a start. The faint glow of 夜明け was stealing through the window. She flung Athol's arm from her. "Oh, darling," she exclaimed in terrified トンs, "we've slept much too long. Look—it's nearly five o'clock! Quick, quick, you 港／避難所't a second to spare. The girls will be about any moment now. No, don't stop to kiss me. Quick, put on your 着せる／賦与するs. I'll help you."

It was a 慈悲の ending to those wonderful hours. Not a moment of time given them to grieve that they were parting, and no harrowing agony in a last long ぐずぐず残る embrace. Just 活動／戦闘, quick 決定的な 活動／戦闘, every moment.

She bustled him into his 着せる／賦与するs, stuffed his tie and collar in his pocket and laced up one shoe while he laced up the other. Then, throwing a dressing-gown over her night-dress and still in her 明らかにする feet, she に先行するd him out of the room.

They passed 負かす／撃墜する the stairs 会合 no one, but then at the 底（に届く） and just as they were both 製図／抽選 in 深い breaths of 救済—Jeanne （機の）カム into the passage and caught them.

"N'ayez-pas peur, ma cherie," she exclaimed emphatically. "Je ne sais rien. N'ayez-pas peur," and then, for the 利益 of Athol whom she realised at first ちらりと見ること was not a 同国人 of hers and therefore probably English, she 追加するd beamingly, "No, I say nussing, Monsieur. I not speak a word."

Athol beamed 支援する at her. "Good girl!" he exclaimed fervently in fluent French, and he was putting his 手渡す in his breast pocket to feel for his wallet when the indignant look upon the girl's 直面する stopped him.

"No, Monsieur," she said, 製図／抽選 herself up with dignity, "nothing of that." Her 直面する was at once all smiles again. "I rejoice that Madame is having a little happiness"—she pointed with her thumb to the 床に打ち倒す above—"away from that old ogre up there."

A hurried kiss, and Athol had gone.

Strangely enough in the 後継するing days Mary was not nearly so depressed as it might have been thought she would have been. She had experienced a 広大な／多数の／重要な happiness, and the memory of it she 決定するd should last her all her life. In some strange way, however, she was sure she would one day 会合，会う her lover again. She had no 恐れる that she was now going to have a baby by him, as nothing had happened before from her husband and she felt sure she must be a woman who was never ーするつもりであるd to have a family.

Still, in the week which followed she had good 原因（となる） to be worried, and then, all suddenly, her 恐れるs that her husband would learn she had not been true to him were swept away. He was ordered by his 会社／堅い to go to Bayonne on 商売／仕事 and, though he had long since 中止するd to be 利益／興味d in her, his jealous temperament made him take her with him.

They were away a fortnight, and, the change seeming to do him good, he was much more agreeable to her, with one of his old moods of tenderness 現実に taking 所有／入手 of him again. His attentions were a 広大な／多数の／重要な 裁判，公判 to Mary, but she realised sadly they had their good 味方する, and すぐに after their return home she told him she was sure she was going to have a baby.

He received the news with something of an incredulous frown and at first was 明白に more annoyed than pleased. However, upon consideration it was evident he realised there would be some recompense for him in his coming fatherhood.

When those three years 支援する he had returned with a wife, he had been made the butt of many sly jokes の中で his 知識s, and in his 審理，公聴会 they had talked about the foolishness of people buying good 調書をとる／予約するs which their sight was not good enough for them to read. Also, there had been casual について言及する of the undesirability of mating old roosters with young 女／おっせかい屋s.

Now, however, he had the laugh of them and, throwing out his chest, he strutted about as if he had suddenly become a clever and very important man.

Jeanne and her sister were kinder than ever to Mary, with the former never referring to the 会合 that morning with the handsome stranger upon the stairs.

So in 予定 time was born Dora Jacqueline Dane, as lovely a baby as anyone could have wished, and who will say it was not sent by heaven as some recompense for the 悲劇の marriage of her poor little mother?

For the first time since her wedding day Mary was supremely happy.

CHAPTER II. — THE GREAT ADVENTURE

AT eighteen years of age, Dora was undoubtedly one of the prettiest girls in Bordeaux. With her mother's perfect colouring, she had aristocratic （疑いを）晴らす-削減（する） features and beautiful serene grey 注目する，もくろむs. She carried herself proudly, and from 早期に childhood days there had been a 確かな dignity about her which discouraged patronage from anyone.

Of a much stronger character than her mother, she had plenty of courage and a 決定するd will. Afraid of no one, upon occasions she did not hesitate to speak her mind, never, however, in any argument losing her temper. With a general contempt for 当局 and 条約, she 従うd with 支配するs and 規則s only because it 利益（をあげる）d her to do so.

Outwardly of a 冷淡な and reserved nature, and making few friends at the convent school where she was a 週刊誌 boarder, her outspoken opinions にもかかわらず carried not a little 負わせる with the other girls, often rather to the 苦しめる of the Sisters in 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金.

"You know いつかs I am rather afraid for Dora," said one of the teaching Sisters one day to a 同僚. "She has 広大な／多数の／重要な 影響（力） with the other girls, but is not always the best example for them. For one thing, she hasn't the reverence she should have for the Fathers, and last week after Monseigneur Herblay's 演説（する）／住所 she said 率直に in class that he made her feel tired. She asked, too, what could an old and unmarried man like Monseigneur know about the feelings and hopes of young girls. I was very sharp with her, because I could see the others in the class were smiling and giving one another sly nods."

The other Sister sighed 深く，強烈に. "And she's so pretty," she said, "that if Monseigneur （機の）カム to learn what she had said he'd probably only smile, too." She sighed again. "I notice all the Fathers who come here take more notice of her than of anyone else."

"But you shouldn't have 許すd yourself to imagine you had noticed such things," reproved the first Sister はっきりと. "Your 良心 and your training must have told you you were wrong. To the Fathers, all our girls here are only souls to be guided in the 権利 way. All earthly thoughts about them, however pretty they may be, have no 存在 at all."

The second Sister sighed again, but, had her 公約するs permitted, it might have been she would have smiled as she had just been told the girls in class had done.

Now if Dora were so admired and looked up to by the other convent girls, she was 簡単に idolised by her mother. From babyhood to childhood and on to girlhood, 負かす／撃墜する all the years she had filled Mary's life, giving to her a happiness she had never thought she would ever experience.

She would gaze and gaze at her for long minutes at a time, thinking 情愛深く what a little aristocrat she was and what a beautiful woman she would one day be. And was it not natural, she told herself, for had not she the best of English 血 in her veins? Had not Athol told her that his mother was a daughter of a peer of the realm, with the barony going 支援する for hundreds and hundreds of years?

So Mary's dreams for her daughter's 未来 were 十分な and ambitious ones. When Dane was dead—and, a quickly ageing man with many 病気s, she was sure he could not live for very long, she would take her to England, and search out her father so that he could help her to make a good marriage and take a rightful position の中で his own class of people.

She had never heard from Athol since that morning when he had so hurriedly gone away, but she had hardly 推定する／予想するd she would. They had agreed it would be far too dangerous for him to 令状 or 試みる／企てる to get in touch with her in any way. Still, she often sighed to herself that she was sure had he only become aware that she had borne a child of whom he was the father he would have 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 危険 everything to 始める，決める 注目する，もくろむs upon his own flesh and 血.

Her 約束 in him had never wavered, and she knew he would never have forgotten her. What a surprise it would be for him when she brought him 直面する to 直面する with Dora! He would know 即時に that she was his daughter, as she was very like him, with the same profile, the same 注目する，もくろむs and the same beautifully-形態／調整d 手渡すs. Why, even that slight crook in one of her little fingers was 正確に／まさに like the crook in one of his!

Of course, she would sigh again, Athol would have married long ago. She must 推定する／予想する that, but she consoled herself with thinking that no wife, however 高度に born, could have given him a daughter anything like as beautiful as was Dora.

Then, unbeknown to Dane and 支払う／賃金ing for them out of the housekeeping money, she began to take in some of the best illustrated English society 定期刊行物s, hoping that one day she might read in them something about Athol or his mother, and perhaps even see their photographs.

She and Dora used to pore over these 定期刊行物s at week-ends, and whisper animatedly together of the wonderful times they would one day have when they went home together and would see, and perhaps speak to, some of these 広大な／多数の／重要な people. Dora, of course, had no idea how it would come about, but in time the 期待 （機の）カム to form not a small part of her day-dreams.

All along Dora had had a 広大な／多数の／重要な affection for her mother and never given her any of those 冷淡な and distant looks which so often she bestowed upon others. As she had grown older, too, it was as if in her much stronger nature she had thrown a mantle of 保護 over her, for when she was 現在の it seemed to Mary as if Dane never dared to be やめる so unpleasant as when they were by themselves. Undoubtedly he was always a little bit afraid of Dora with her sharp words and contemptuous looks.

Dane had not 改善するd with the passing of the years and, now approaching sixty, was more bad-tempered and crotchety than ever. He never showed the slightest affection or consideration for Mary and, taking as little notice of her as possible, seemed to regard her as only one of the servants to manage the 事件／事情／状勢s of his house.

Mary hated him with as 深い a hate as her weak nature would 許す. She had never forgiven him for his 治療 of her family. Of them she had never seen anything since her wedding day, as they had all been killed in one of the few bad 爆破 （警察の）手入れ，急襲s the Germans had made upon London in the first 広大な／多数の／重要な War. They had moved from their house in Manor Park to one in a part of East Ham, newly built ones, and one night only a few weeks later a 爆弾 had fallen there and wiped out nearly the whole of the little terrace.

It had been many weeks before Mary had been able to find out what had happened to them, and then only upon 令状ing to the Superintendent of Police in East Ham. He had replied that hers was one of nine families that had been 完全に wiped out, either by the 爆弾 or the 猛烈な／残忍な conflagration which had followed. No trace of any of them had ever been 設立する.

Dane's 態度 に向かって Dora had been always a peculiar one. In a way, as his supposed daughter, he could not help feeling proud of her good looks and 強烈な character, but of real affection for her he had never had any. As a baby, she had always been a source of irritation and annoyance to him, and as she had grown older he had taken little 利益／興味 in her—it may have been because even as a little child she had never liked him to touch her and had kept as far away from him as possible.

From the earliest days of her coming, too, Mary had been different に向かって him. Motherhood had given her a little courage, and no longer had she put up with his いじめ（る）ing in the old-time meek and uncomplaining ways. Upon occasions she would answer him 支援する はっきりと, 特に in anything 影響する／感情ing the child, when she put her foot 負かす／撃墜する 堅固に and took her own line of 活動／戦闘.

It was she who had 主張するd that Dora should go as a 週刊誌 boarder to the convent, not because she was of their 宗教的な 説得／派閥, but for the 目的 of getting her out of the atmosphere of her home where Dane's presence was always a depressing one.

Dora's dislike of Dane had become 強めるd as the years had gone by, and it was a 広大な／多数の／重要な but unspoken 悲しみ for her to think that she should have come from such a father. Often, as she looked at him with his frowning and ill-tempered 直面する and 公式文書，認めるd how invariably curt and off-手渡す he was with her mother, she used to wonder whatever the latter could have seen in him to induce her to marry him.

自然に of an ambitious disposition and with this trait in her character so encouraged by the 確信して 保証／確信 of her mother that a 有望な 未来 lay before her, a 冷気／寒がらせるing 疑問 so often took 所有／入手 of Dora's mind. Herself of a keen 知能, when she considered both her parents she 疑問d how any child of theirs could make a success of her life. With all her 深い affection for her mother, she knew the latter was anything but clever and with a character that was both 産する／生じるing and weak. As for her father—with what good and 優れた 質s could he have かもしれない endowed her? Shallow-minded and of a childish and querulous disposition, outside his own particular work he was most ignorant and ill-知らせるd. Just a very ordinary and ありふれた old man!

Every time she looked at him she hated the thought that his 血 ran in her veins.

Then one day suddenly a 広大な／多数の／重要な 負わせる was 解除するd from her mind, and her hopes for the 未来 went up with a bound. Wishful thinking became a probability, and probability passed quickly into certainty. Dane was not her father, and indeed he was no relation of hers at all.

Under his selfish 判決，裁定, no school friends were ever 招待するd to the house. He would not be bothered, he said, by noisy giggling girls, and so few of them had ever 始める，決める 注目する，もくろむs upon him or had any idea what he was like. Her mother, however, many of them knew, as they had seen her when out walking in the streets with Dora and also when she had been 現在の at the breaking-up parties when Dora had received not a few prizes.

Then, one afternoon in 中央の-week, when Dora and the girl with whom she was probably the most friendly at the convent had been sent upon an errand by the Reverend Mother to a stationer's shop, they ran into Dane, who was inside talking to one of the assistants.

"What are you doing here?" he asked frowningly of Dora, in 広大な／多数の／重要な surprise.

"Oh, I've come for something for the Reverend Mother," replied Dora in a トン as off-手渡す as she could make it, not liking the curt way in which he had 演説（する）／住所d her in the 審理，公聴会 of her friend.

"But I thought you were never let out alone," went on Dane はっきりと, as if he only half believed what she had told him.

"I'm not alone," said Dora, 平等に as はっきりと. "I have my friend here with me."

"Oh," grunted Dane, "then get 支援する to the convent 直接／まっすぐに you've got what you've been sent for." He glared nastily. "Mind, no hanging about the streets," and without another word he turned and left the shop, やめる ignoring the polite "Good afternoon, Mr. Dane," of the assistant who had been serving him.

"Oh, Dora," exclaimed her friend when a minute or two later they were out in the street again, "is that old man really your father?"

"I suppose so," replied Dora casually, intensely mortified, however, that a fellow pupil had been a 証言，証人／目撃する of his rudeness.

"But are you sure," went on her friend most interestedly, "because," she 追加するd emphatically, "you're not a bit like him?"

"Don't be so silly, Marie!" snapped Dora. "Of course I'm sure!" She spoke 怒って. "Do you think I would have 許すd anyone else to try to order me about like he was doing—without 説 anything?"

"So you're sure, are you?" laughed her friend. "井戸／弁護士席, I'm not. In fact I'm sure he can't be." She dropped her 発言する／表明する to an excited whisper. "Oh, Dora, dear, can't you see your mother must have had a lover before you were born? That man couldn't be the father of a girl like you. Why—anyone can see the 産む／飼育するing in you, but he's as ありふれた as can be. No, your father was an aristocrat, I'm 確かな of it."

Dora's heart almost stood still. Although, with the precocity of the Latin races, sex 事柄s were 自由に discussed の中で the convent girls, and passion and illicit love were the most favoured 主題s of their whispered conversations, the idea had never for one moment come to her that anything of an unlawful nature would ever touch her or anyone to do with her. Now—the very suggestion that perhaps it might have already done so burst like a thunderclap into her mind.

It might be, oh yes, it surely might be, for had not her mother, as far 支援する as she could remember, always brought her up as if her father were some sort of stranger to her? Had she not all along let her have as little as possible to do with him, and spoken of him to her, the few times she did について言及する him, in a 冷淡な and unsmiling way? Had it not always seemed, too, that there was a 障壁 between her parents, on her mother's 味方する far greater than could be accounted for by her 存在 tied to a bad-tempered and selfish old man?

Dora's thoughts raced on. A-ah, and another 発覚 雪崩／（抗議などの）殺到d into her mind! Now she could understand her mother's 吸収するd 利益／興味 in those society 定期刊行物s coming from England! Of course she was always on the look-out to read something about her old lover and perhaps even see a photograph of him! If he were an aristocrat, as Marie had 示唆するd, he would be moving in English society circles and——

Her friend's 発言する／表明する broke into her reverie. "Yes, Dora, depend upon it that old man's not your father, and your mother had a lover once."

Dora 安定したd her 発言する／表明する and spoke casually, as if the 事柄 were of small importance. "And would anyone 非難する her if she had?" she asked coldly. "Would you?"

"Certainly not!" exclaimed Marie emphatically, and, a true daughter of that country where, in the minds of most people, 事件／事情／状勢s of sex have always taken 優先 over everything else, she went on with all the 知恵 of her sixteen years, "Everyone knows there are millions of loveless marriages in the world, and if any woman finds she has made one of course she'll look for love somewhere else."

Dora spoke ひどく. "All the same, Marie, my mother's 事件／事情／状勢s are no 商売／仕事 of yours, and I think I'll almost kill you if you ever say a word of this to the other girls."

"Oh, I won't say anything," returned her friend 即時に. "I'll never breathe a word." She laughed meaningly. "But I'm やめる 確かな I'm 権利."

深い 負かす／撃墜する in her heart Dora believed it, and a mighty thrill 殺到するd through her. Indeed, she could have cried in her 救済 that the dreadful taint of the Dane 血 would no longer haunt her. She was 解放する／自由なd for ever of the 恐れる of the horrible 質s he might have passed 負かす／撃墜する to her.

When she went home that week-end she was more affectionate than ever に向かって her mother and, strange to say considering the strict moral precepts inculcated at the convent, with an 追加するd 尊敬（する）・点 for her. To have dared to take a lover, as she now was 確かな she had, her mother must have had more courage than she had hitherto believed, and she must have been cleverer than she had thought, too, to have 後継するd in keeping all knowledge of it from her husband.

Dora was やめる 確かな Dane had never discovered anything, for had he done so he would have been the very man to throw his wife out into the streets, glad in his mean and selfish nature to rid himself of the expense of keeping her.

She would have dearly loved to have brought the 事柄 up and questioned her mother point-blank, but, she told herself, she would never do that, as her mother, notwithstanding her one undoubted moral lapse, was by nature a clean-minded and chaste woman, 慣例的に inclined.

Still, with a 大いに 増加するd 利益／興味 now in the London 定期刊行物s, she did go as far one Sunday as to 示唆する in all innocence that the photograph of one of the 広大な／多数の／重要な people she saw there was not unlike her, and, as she made the 発言／述べる, she noticed her mother's 直面する had gone a little pink.

"But that Lord Hindhead, Mother," she had said, "might be some relation of 地雷, mightn't he? His nose is something like 地雷."

"But he's much too dark, darling," had laughed her mother, "and his 注目する，もくろむs are やめる different, too." She shook her 長，率いる as if 大いに amused. "No, we'll have to look another day for someone else who 似ているs you."

Approaching eighteen, Dora left the convent, smilingly giving no 激励 to the suggestion of the Reverend Mother that she should become a 宗教的な.

"No, Reverend Mother," she said decidedly, "I have not been made that way. I'm much too selfish and, besides, I want to have babies one day."

The Reverend Mother made no 試みる／企てる to 説得する her. "Then the good God be with you, my child," she said, "and be sure and remember all you have learnt while with us here," and Dora, mindful of the many things which, unbeknown to the Reverend Mother, she had learnt, smiled covertly to herself.

Her education over, Dane 手配中の，お尋ね者 Dora to （問題を）取り上げる secretarial work, but neither the latter nor her mother were of his opinion.

"You're going to be a hospital nurse, darling," had said her mother, with her grand ideas for Dora's 未来. "That is a profession which will 供給する you with work anywhere, and when we go to England it will bring you in 接触する with the class of people I ーするつもりである you shall get to know. A nurse in the sick room is the equal of everyone."

Dora smiled at her mother's 切望, but the nursing profession 控訴，上告d to her, too, and so, 無視（する）ing all Dane's 試みる／企てるs to 妨げる her, she was entered as a probationer at a small 私的な hospital, chosen おもに because it was not far from where the Danes lived.

From the very first she was a success. Sharp and 徹底的な in all she did, with her attractive 外見 she stood out from の中で the other girls and soon became a favourite with the matron and sisters. Some of the doctors, too, who （機の）カム to the hospital, had she in any way encouraged them, would have been most willing to show their 利益／興味 in her, but with no prudery she yet managed to keep them all at a distance, 拒絶する／低下するing all 協会 with them except when carrying out her nursing 義務s.

Not that she was not 利益／興味d in men, for beneath her 冷淡な and reserved manner, as a perfectly normal and healthy young woman, she had been endowed with warm and strong feelings. However, in her later years at the convent it had been 井戸／弁護士席 演習d into her by the older girls where a woman's 力／強力にする lay and that she would be a foolish creature to part with her treasures lightly, or indeed 許す them to be （名声などを）汚すd before she had been 保護（する）／緊急輸入制限d by the marriage 公約するs.

"After that, dear," had summed up the sophisticated Marie, "it all depends upon the man you marry whether or not you remain what they call a good woman. If he makes you happy you'll probably be content with him, but if he neglects you"—she laughed slyly—"you may, in time, have secrets to hide."

So, 受託するing these 見解（をとる）s of life as 存在 probably the 訂正する ones and her ambitions to get on in the world 強化するing her 決意／決議, she had 決定するd there should be no 証拠不十分 upon her part. She had 始める，決める a price upon herself and, moreover, when the time （機の）カム would 受託する 支払い（額） only from the man she had come to love. With her mother's sad experience before her, she would make no loveless marriage, however tempting the prospects might appear to be.

With Dora's training only partly 完全にするd, Birtle Dane died suddenly from an apoplectic seizure, and neither Mary nor Dora, when by themselves, made any pretence of grief. Unmindful of anyone's 利益／興味 but his own, he had been careless to the last and left no will. The 広い地所 was 概算の to be 価値（がある） about seven thousand 続けざまに猛撃するs, and Mary was delighted to think they would be so 井戸／弁護士席-off when she returned to England. Still, to her 広大な／多数の／重要な 失望, the lawyer who had always had 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of Dane's 事件／事情／状勢s 明言する／公表するd that as the latter had died intestate there would be some little 延期する in winding everything up.

So Mary 除去するd into apartments to wait with what patience she could, while Dora continued at the hospital, with the 意向 that when she did get to London she would finish the training there.

Then, to Dora's dreadful びっくり仰天 and unutterable grief, two months after Dane's death her mother was stricken 負かす／撃墜する with 肺炎 and passed away within the week. She had been nursed at home, Dora hardly ever leaving her 味方する and 存在 with her in her last moments.

It was truly a dreadful position for such a young girl as Dora to find herself in. She had no relations and had 事実上 no friends either. Also, knowing nothing of 商売／仕事 事柄s, she was 完全に in the 手渡すs of Dane's lawyer, whom she speedily （機の）カム to dislike intensely. A good-looking man about forty, he started to make 前進するs by wanting to 持つ／拘留する her 手渡す. Letting him see はっきりと there was going to be 非，不，無 of that, his manner became at once disagreeable and it seemed to her that of 始める，決める 目的 he was in no hurry to 勝利，勝つd up the 広い地所.

圧力（をかける）ing him continually, he kept putting her off, however, with one excuse and another, until at length she became 怪しげな that everything was not 権利 and, knowing no one else to whom she could go for advice, finally approached the 経営者／支配人 of the bank where Dane had had his account and told him the trouble she was in, asking what she had better do.

A 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な and 静かな man of middle age, the bank 経営者／支配人 was touched by her helplessness and 約束d to go and interview the lawyer with no 延期する. He told her to call again the に引き続いて morning. When she did he had the worst of news for her.

"My interview was most unsatisfactory," he said, "and you had better put everything in the 手渡すs of another lawyer at once. If you give me a 力／強力にする of 弁護士／代理人／検事 I'll have the whole 事柄 gone into 完全に."

A week later the horrifying news was communicated to Dora that she would get 事実上 nothing from Dane's 広い地所, as the lawyer had all along been 賭事ing unsuccessfully with the 安全s he had held and now had no 資産s.

"Of course he'll be punished," said the 銀行業者, "but that is all we can do. I am afraid the money is lost irretrievably."

And so, it 証明するd, it was, and Dora 設立する herself in London a month later with just over fifty 続けざまに猛撃するs, all the money she had in the world.

The bank 経営者／支配人 had been 親切 itself, but, getting to know him better, she had been 大いに embarrassed by his attentions. He had taken to 表明するing his 賞賛 for her and, finally, had 手配中の，お尋ね者 to kiss her. Also, he had intimated very delicately that if she would like to remain on in Bordeaux he would be やめる agreeable to lend her all the money she needed until she had 得るd her 証明書 and was finally 開始する，打ち上げるd into her profession. It had been very unpleasant for her to 撃退する his 前進するs as, apart from his 有能な and 商売／仕事-like ways, he had shown himself a charming and most 同情的な man.

"But it is only as Marie said," Dora 反映するd sadly. "All the men are after the same thing, but once a woman has sold it, if she has sold it 不正に, she may be poor as a church mouse."

So Dora had realised 早期に that while so much of a woman's happiness in life depended upon how she used her sex, sex was a 武器 with a blade of the finest temper and very easily blunted.

Putting up at a women's 宿泊所 in King's Cross to which she had been recommended, she lost no time in 適用するing to be taken on at St. Jude's Hospital. Though it was smaller than several of the other hospitals, she had chosen that one in particular because she had remembered reading that Lord Avon's daughter had had her training there.

The matron was very polite to her and said that, while she had no vacancy for the moment, she would certainly be able to take her 結局, though it might not be for two or even three months. However, Dora, liking the look of her and also of what she saw of the hospital, decided she would wait.

In the 合間, with her small reserve of money, she had no 意向 of remaining idle and so started to find something to do at once.

Then, in the 宣伝 columns of almost the very first newspaper she looked into, she saw there was a vacancy for a 女性（の） receptionist at a health 学校／設ける and, to her 広大な／多数の／重要な delight, it 明言する／公表するd, 'one with some experience of nursing preferred'. Applicants for the position were to call that evening between five and six.

So, 井戸／弁護士席 before the time 明示するd, 十分な of high hopes, Dora 始める，決める out to interview the 主要な／長／主犯 of the 学校／設ける whose 前提s were 据えるd in Shaftesbury Avenue.

CHAPTER III. — BIRDS OF PREY

THE proprietress of the 学校／設ける of Perfect Health, Madame Bertha de Roche, was a tall woman of 命令（する）ing presence. As a girl she had been decidedly pretty and, now, approaching her forty-third year, was considered by no means ill-favoured by those who were admirers of her type of coarse and rather masculine beauty. She had big blue 注目する，もくろむs which seared you through and through, a 井戸／弁護士席-developed nose, a big mouth which a physiognomist would have 述べるd as 存在 both ruthless and cruel, and a strong, 決定するd chin. Altogether she was not a woman whom a timid person would care to cross.

To her 患者s—she would never call them （弁護士の）依頼人s—she made out she was of スイスの 国籍 and （機の）カム from Zurich, but in truth she was of German-ユダヤ人の birth, born in Stuttgart and baptised Griselda Haffman.

Her father had been a veterinary 外科医 大（公）使館員d to the Zoological Gardens in Berlin, but 認める with his family into the 部隊d 明言する／公表するs some ten years before the first 広大な／多数の／重要な War, he had taken out papers of naturalisation and they had all enjoyed the 権利s and 特権s of American 市民権.

She had been married to a Chicago druggist, but when he died three years 以前 had come to London with a small 資本／首都 and with the 援助 of her brother, Leopold Haffman, who had been a French polisher by 貿易（する） and who for 推論する／理由s best known to himself kept very much in the background, had started the 学校／設ける of Perfect Health. A cousin of Madame's, Anna Barl, helped in the work of the 学校／設ける, too.

At first the 学校／設ける had 限定するd itself to perfectly 合法的 商売／仕事, advising as to diet to 控訴 さまざまな 病気s, giving massage and carrying out ray 治療s.

In time, however, building up やめる a good 関係, it began 徐々に to 大きくする its activities, with Madame giving 範囲 to her by no means inconsiderable 医療の knowledge by 成し遂げるing a 確かな 操作／手術, a 訴訟／進行 which would have been 高度に 利益／興味ing to the 当局 had they come to learn what was going on.

She was, however, most 用心深い there, only taking on these 操作／手術s in most carefully selected 事例／患者s and then only when the attendant 危険 was made 井戸／弁護士席 価値（がある） her while by a 相当な 料金. 一般に speaking, all the ordinary 治療s given by the 学校／設ける were expensive ones which could be afforded only by the 井戸／弁護士席-to-do, and so when it （機の）カム to these 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の and unsocial 治療s, as can be 井戸／弁護士席 imagined, it meant good money changing 手渡すs.

Knowing her 外見 was an unusual one and would be easily called to mind by any third party who had once seen her, she was always 毅然とした in 拒絶する／低下するing to wait upon anyone in their own house. For whatever they 手配中の，お尋ね者 done they must come to the 学校／設ける and come alone. No friend was ever 許すd to …を伴って them, and the 料金 had invariably to be paid before anything was started. Also, the 指名するs of these particular 患者s were never entered in the 任命 調書をとる／予約する of the 学校／設ける, so that, if occasion should arise, there should be no proof that she had ever come there.

All things considered propitious, the 手続き carried out appeared to be a very simple one 継続している only two or three minutes, and then the woman would be sent home in a taxi to wait events. If she became ill, with her 気温 rising, she had the strictest orders on no account to approach Madame again. Instead, she was enjoined at once to call in a 確かな 医療の man, with whose 指名する and 演説（する）／住所 she was 供給するd. This practitioner was a Dr. Chalda Simeon with 協議するing-rooms in Wimpole Street, and Madame would then 支払う／賃金 him a big 料金 to cover her by …に出席するing the 患者 and 取引，協定ing with anything which might happen.

Madame had a most wholesome 恐れる of the police, and (a)手の込んだ／(v)詳述する 警戒s were taken in 事例／患者 they should send おとりs as wolves in sheep's 着せる／賦与するing to 協議する her. Two friends who （機の）カム together were always 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う from the very moment they entered the waiting-room. A hidden microphone had been 任命する／導入するd there and, if need be, every word they spoke could be listened into by Madame in another room. Also, her cousin, this Anna Barl who was 完全に in her 信用／信任, after 勧めるing into the 協議するing-room any two 報知係s who had come together, never left Madame's 味方する unless by a prearranged signal—the moving of the inkstand upon the desk—she understood she was to go away.

Madame had only had one 小衝突 with the police and, though nothing had come of it, it had not been a pleasant happening.

A young girl art-student living in West Kensington had been suddenly taken 厳粛に ill に引き続いて upon a visit to the 学校／設ける, and, contrary to Madame's 指示／教授／教育s, a 地元の doctor had been あわてて 召喚するd by the girl's mother. He had at once given it as his opinion that the 患者's 条件 was 予定 to the very 最近の 業績／成果 of an 違法な 操作／手術. She had been 急ぐd to hospital, but had passed away that same night before she had given any explanation of what had happened to her.

Then a friend remembered that only a few days 以前 she had talked of having some electric 治療 for her neuritis and was going for it to someone who practised 近づく Shaftesbury Avenue. That was the only （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） the police could 得る, but they had visited all likely places in the neighbourhood について言及するd and, の中で several other practitioners, had interviewed Madame de Roche.

Of course, when they appeared at the 学校／設ける Madame was all innocence, and 否定するd ever having heard of the girl, with her 任命 調書をとる／予約する 存在 produced as 証拠. 追加するd to that, she assumed a 広大な／多数の／重要な indignation that the police should now be coming to question her about such a disgraceful 事柄. However, the 視察官, 視察官 Hatherleigh, had not seemed at all 満足させるd and had はっきりと questioned the cousin, too, even then appearing very 気が進まない to take his 出発.

When, however, he had at last disappeared, Madame, with a sigh of 広大な／多数の／重要な 救済, wiped the perspiration from her forehead and, taking out a five-続けざまに猛撃する 公式文書，認める from her desk, 手渡すd it to her cousin.

"And that's for you for not losing your 長，率いる, Anna," she said. "You were splendid in the way you answered all his questions. I can't for the life of me see why, but the beast is evidently very 怪しげな about us."

So she 二塁打d all her 警戒s and indeed for several months 拒絶する／低下するd to take on any more such 事例／患者s at all. It was 井戸／弁護士席 she was so 用心深い, for she soon 設立する out the police were continuing to be 利益／興味d in her.

One afternoon, after having rung up for an 任命 to 協議する her about continual 一区切り／（ボクシングなどの）試合s of dreadful indigestion, a woman of about thirty arrived at the 学校／設ける …を伴ってd by a friend. Madame was すぐに 怪しげな, as when in the waiting-room they conversed together in such low whispers that nothing could be 選ぶd up by the microphone. Shown into the 協議するing-room, Madame's 疑惑s that they had come from the police were at once 強化するd by their 外見. They were both strong, muscular-looking women and the 患者, who said the friend who was …を伴ってing her was her sister, gave no 外見 of having anything the 事柄 with her.

She started off 述べるing her symptoms, but Madame at once interrupted by intimating it was her invariable 支配する that the 協議 料金 of one guinea should be paid in 前進する. The woman 従うd, and Anna, who was seated at a small desk in a corner of the room, proceeded to make out the 領収書.

Madame listened 根気よく to the woman's symptoms, asked a few questions, and then made out a diet sheet.

"But do you think," asked the woman hesitatingly, "that my indigestion can be 予定 to anything else?" She looked embarrassed. "Could it be that I am 推定する／予想するing?"

Madame choked 負かす／撃墜する her fury that the police should be so 意図 on catching her, and replied with something of a grim smile, "But I'm afraid I can't tell you that. It is altogether out of my line. You must 協議する a gynaecologist."

"But if I should be in that 条件," went on the woman plaintively, "I am やめる 用意が出来ている to 支払う／賃金 almost anything to be put 権利." Her 発言する／表明する seemed to choke. "Remember, I am an unmarried woman."

For a few moments Madame regarded her with 炎ing 注目する，もくろむs and then, 怒り／怒る getting the better of discretion, she burst out, "No, you are not 推定する／予想するing——" and, taking in the woman's homely, spotted 直面する, she 追加するd witheringly, "—and you can go 支援する to 視察官 Hatherleigh and tell him it is not likely you ever will be."

The woman coloured up. "I don't know what you mean," she said はっきりと, "except that you are ーするつもりであるing to be 侮辱ing. I have nothing to do with any 視察官s."

Madame laughed scornfully. "I was a policewoman myself once," she lied, "and you can't take me in. I knew you were police the very moment you entered the room." She flung the diet sheet at her. "Here, take this," she went on はっきりと. "If you follow the directions there you'll 利益 by them and get rid of those disgusting-looking pimples on your 直面する. You are a 甚だしい／１２ダース feeder and guzzle too much fat," and the two women, scowling 怒って, were 勧めるd out by Anna, who appeared to be enjoying herself immensely.

And so this was the high-class 学校／設ける of Perfect Health to which Dora so hopefully made her way upon that afternoon at five o'clock!

There were three other girls in the waiting-room when Anna, after a hard and long 星／主役にする, 勧めるd her in. Dora was impressed with the 任命s. The waiting-room was 井戸／弁護士席 and tastefully furnished with comfortable 議長，司会を務めるs, a settee and a very good carpet. Everything looked 繁栄する and as if the 学校／設ける were doing 井戸／弁護士席.

The three girls before her were fetched away, one by one, but, as 非，不，無 of them were gone for very long, Dora was 希望に満ちた they were not suitable. Then her turn （機の）カム and Anna led her in to see Madame, 発言／述べるing やめる audibly in German as she 勧めるd her into the room, "And here's a stuck-up bit of goods if ever I saw one. She thinks a lot of herself, she does!"

Now Dora had always been good at languages and, as two of the teaching Sisters at the convent had come from Berlin, she had more than a fair knowledge of German. So she understood perfectly 井戸／弁護士席 what Anna had said and with some difficulty 抑えるd a smile when she heard herself 述べるd as looking stuck-up.

Madame 注目する，もくろむd her suspiciously, 存在 very annoyed that an 部外者 should have had to be called into the 学校／設ける. However, there was no help for it, as Anna might be leaving any time now to be married, and in consequence another receptionist had to be 得るd as quickly as possible to 選ぶ up the 決まりきった仕事 of her 義務s.

"And where have you had your training?" asked Madame. "In a 私的な hospital at Bordeaux! Then how is it that if you have lived all your life in フラン, you speak English 同様に as any English girl?"

Dora explained that both her parents had been English and she had been brought up to speak that language in her home.

A thought seemed suddenly to strike Madame, and remembering what Anna had 発言／述べるd upon bringing Dora into the room, she asked はっきりと, "And you speak German, too?"

Dora fibbed boldly. After the rude 発言／述べる that had been made about her she thought it would be ぎこちない for both of them if she 認める she had understood it. So she shook her 長，率いる and replied she had no knowledge of German.

Madame was impressed with the look of her and was thinking quickly that with her prettiness and innocent 外見 she would be やめる an 資産 to the 学校／設ける. However, she was 決定するd no police 秘かに調査する should be 工場／植物d 近づく her, and accordingly the 尋問 of Dora was both sharp and searching.

She 手配中の，お尋ね者 to know everything about her, who her parents had been, what had been her 推論する／理由 for coming to London and what 親族s and friends she had in England.

"Then if you know no one over here," she frowned, "you can give me no English 言及／関連s?"

"No, these are the only 言及／関連s I have," replied Dora, and she 手渡すd over to her those from the convent and the hospital, along with a letter from the Bordeaux 銀行業者, vouching for her respectability.

"Then are you a girl who can be 信用d?" snapped Madame. "Because I won't have anyone here who will gossip about the 事件／事情／状勢s of the 学校／設ける. My 患者s are all high-class and it will do me a lot of 害（を与える） if their 病気s are discussed outside."

"But I can 持つ／拘留する my tongue," said Dora 温かく. "I have never been one to make many friends, and I don't give away 信用／信任s."

"Very 井戸／弁護士席, then," said Madame after a long pause, "I'll give you a 裁判，公判. I'll 供給（する） you with a uniform and you can start here to-morrow. If I find you don't 控訴 me, you'll go without any notice. I'll 支払う／賃金 you two guineas a week."

Dora coloured up. "But that's not enough," she said 即時に. "I can't come to you under three," and then, as Madame glared ひどく at her as if very astonished she did not at once 受託する the 条件 申し込む／申し出d her, she 追加するd, "I couldn't live on two guineas. I have to 支払う／賃金 thirty-five shillings for my 週刊誌 board and 宿泊するing at the 宿泊所, and that would leave only seven shillings for my fares, 着せる／賦与するing and other expenses."

In a way, Madame was not displeased at her 需要・要求するing the extra guinea, as it 示唆するd at once that Dora had nothing to do with the police. Were that so, she thought, she would have taken any salary 申し込む／申し出d. So it was finally agreed Dora should be paid the three guineas, and the next morning she started upon her 義務s.

She liked the work at once. The 患者s 利益／興味d her, and she was always 推測するing as to what their 病気s were. However, she never （機の）カム to like Madame, as the latter's manner was always rude and いじめ（る）ing. She disliked Anna, too, and she felt she was 存在 watched by her as a cat would watch a mouse.

She was sure, too, it was Anna who had been making enquiries to find out if she were really living at the 宿泊所, as one evening when she returned home the girl at the desk, with some amusement, told her a stranger had rung up that afternoon and enquired if a 行方不明になる Dank were staying there and, if so, if she was in. The girl had said they had no 行方不明になる Dank, but there was a 行方不明になる Dane. その結果, the stranger had asked how long she had been staying there and, upon 存在 told only a week, had at once said that was not the lady she 手配中の，お尋ね者, and had rung off.

Dora had asked the girl what the stranger had seemed like to talk to, and, when the girl had replied that she spoke in a quick and jerky トン, was sure it had been Anna, as that was 正確に／まさに the way in which she always spoke. Dora was disgusted the 学校／設ける was so distrustful of her.

To Leopold Haffman, Madame's brother, who had 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of the ray 治療s, she took no liking either, though he amused her in a 穏やかな sort of way as he was always making fun of the 患者s behind their 支援するs. She summed him up as a dissipated roue whom no girl could 信用. She kept him 井戸／弁護士席 at a distance, though he was always most polite and respectful to her and never 試みる／企てるd the slightest familiarity.

She saw the West End doctor a few times, and used to wonder what brought him in to the 学校／設ける, as she knew it would not be considered 倫理的な by the 医療の profession to have 取引 with Madame, who in their 注目する，もくろむs must be considered as an unqualified practitioner, trespassing upon their 保存するs. The doctor was a 井戸／弁護士席-dressed and good-looking man, with something of a distinguished 空気／公表する. He never spoke to her, but 注目する，もくろむd her inquisitively, and an instinct told her that, if she gave him the slightest 開始, he would not be averse to starting up an 知識 with her. She never learnt his 指名する, as Madame never called him anything except 'Doctor'.

When she had been at the 学校／設ける for a very little while the idea began 徐々に to come to her that more was going on than it was ーするつもりであるd she should know. She was not やめる 確かな , either, that it was believed she did not understand German, as though all the time Madame and Anna invariably used that language when speaking together, they would often 突然の stop talking when she （機の）カム into the room.

Several times, too, at first she was 確かな Madame had tried to catch her by rapping out a sharp order in German. However, she had always been 用意が出来ている for that and it gave her not a little amusement to 星／主役にする blankly and wait until the order was repeated in English.

Her 疑惑s that 確かな activities of the 学校／設ける were 存在 deliberately kept from her, once 誘発するd, became 強化するd in many little ways, and then, to her disgust and fright, it burst suddenly upon her that she was now in the 雇う of a woman who was carrying on 違法な 操作／手術s. The almost 絶対の 有罪の判決 （機の）カム to her in this way.

Every now and then she would be sent out to buy 確かな medicaments, such as creams and oils needed in the massaging of the 患者s, but the 怪しげな thing about these errands was that the 購入（する）s had always to be made a good way distant from the 学校／設ける, when what was 要求するd could just 同様に have been bought at shops の近くに at 手渡す. It meant her 存在 away much longer than she need have been, and, another thing, she was always sent out at 正確に／まさに the same time of day, about ten minutes before two o'clock. It had often puzzled her, as these longer 旅行s had always seemed such a waste of time.

Another thing, too; she began to associate these peculiar errands with Madame having arrived that morning with a 確かな little 黒人／ボイコット 捕らえる、獲得する which was at once bustled away into a cupboard and not seen again until she took it off with her in the evening.

Then one day, すぐに upon having returned from one of these errands, going into Madame's 協議するing-room when no one was about and placing what she had been sent out to buy upon the desk, she happened to notice the surgical couch had been recently used, as the sheet upon it was disarranged. Also, she distinctly smelt the smell of some antiseptic.

匂いをかぐing hard, she looked 一連の会議、交渉／完成する with a puzzled frown. Antiseptics meant to her some 肉親，親類d of 操作／手術, and yet she had never seen a surgical 器具 of any 肉親，親類d in the place! A 広大な／多数の／重要な light （機の）カム suddenly into her mind! Could it be that Madame was in the habit of 成し遂げるing those dreadful 操作／手術s which, if it were known, would bring upon her the 罰 of the 法律? Of course, that was it, and why, too, she had been sent out once again, so that she should not see the 患者 when she arrived, and guess what she had come for!

She tiptoed quickly 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the desk and opened the 任命 調書をとる／予約する which Madame was accustomed to use also as a rough sort of day-調書をとる／予約する and pencil 負かす／撃墜する against the 指名する of each 患者 what had been done. No, によれば the 調書をとる／予約する no one had been while she had been away and the next 任命 was for half-past two.

That afternoon the work at the 学校／設ける went on as usual, with Madame, however, 存在 perhaps a trifle quieter when she spoke. When the telephone bell went, too, as it did several times, she dropped everything she was doing at once to answer it herself, instead of, as at other times, leaving it either to her cousin or Dora to find out first for what it was 存在 rung. She was anxious, thought Dora, and wondering how the 患者 was getting on.

By now Dora had worked herself up into a most uneasy 明言する／公表する of mind, for, やめる 確かな at last of what was going on, she was very 脅すd that, with any スキャンダル 落ちるing upon the 学校／設ける, as one working there she would certainly be 伴う／関わるd, too. Then, with the terrible publicity which would 続いて起こる, it would mean good-bye to her chances of 存在 taken on at a hospital like St. Jude's, and her whole professional career might be 廃虚d.

支援する at the 宿泊所 that evening she was half minded not to return to the 学校／設ける again and would probably not have done so had it not been for the question of money. There, she was in something of a quandary, as she had been spending every penny of her 週刊誌 salary and more out of her quickly dwindling little nest-egg, in fitting herself out with 不正に needed new 着せる／賦与するs. Indeed, she had only a very few 続けざまに猛撃するs of ready money left.

Finally, she 解決するd to continue on at the 学校／設ける, as, with two months having passed now since her interview with the matron of St. Jude's, she should be 審理，公聴会 from her any day now. She had 約束d to 令状 to her at any 率 within three months, and she had appeared emphatically to be a woman who would keep to her word.

So the に引き続いて morning Dora turned up at the 学校／設ける as usual, hating Madame now not only for her rude and overbearing manner but also for the vile work she was carrying on.

Her feelings に向かって Madame would certainly not have been 改善するd had she overheard a conversation that took place between her and her brother one afternoon in the former's room.

"You know that Dane girl could be very useful to us," Madame 発言／述べるd thoughtfully. "She's quick and intelligent, and 患者s like her. Besides, if ever we happen to get another visit from that insolent blackguard, the 視察官, her 外見 would help to 武装解除する any 疑惑s he had. He would see at once that she is of good class and looks an innocent, too." She paused thoughtfully. "Still, I think I shall have to get rid of her."

"Get rid of her!" exclaimed the brother. "What on earth for?" He leered. "I'm not without hopes of one day having a good time with her." He nodded. "She wants a lot of angling for, but she'd be 価値（がある） it, every time."

Madame frowned. "Then it's a pity you 港／避難所't brought it off already," she said slowly. "If she was your sweetheart it would 貯蔵所d her to us and it wouldn't 事柄 then what she 設立する out." She 追加するd reluctantly, "Still, as I say, I'm getting a bit afraid of her."

"Why," asked Leopold, "what's she done?"

"Nothing that I'm 確かな of," replied Madame, "but it's in my mind that lately she's becoming too curious. She's all 注目する，もくろむs and ears, and I 堅固に 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う she's been going through my papers and things here. Yesterday I'm sure she meddled with my cheque 調書をとる／予約する, as it wasn't 正確に／まさに where I'd left it." She nodded. "Yes, I'm sorry, but I think I'll have to get rid of her. At any 率, I'll watch her for a little while longer."

"And you say she has no friends or relations in England?" asked Leopold.

"Not a 選び出す／独身 one. She's not 井戸／弁護士席 off, either, and hasn't a penny to live on except what she earns here. When I first interviewed her she told me she had been robbed by a thieving French lawyer of all the money her mother had left her."

"And she's such a pretty girl," sighed Leopold, "as pretty as any lover could want."

Madame spoke はっきりと. "Then why don't you get busy with her at once? Shut her mouth by becoming her lover."

Leopold grinned. "I'm やめる willing, but do you think she would be, too?"

"Of course she would be," snapped Madame. "A girl of her age is hungry for all the 楽しみs she can get, and you've only got to approach her 適切に."

Leopold shook his 長，率いる. "We're on やめる good 条件, certainly, but the moment I 試みる／企てる to get a bit more friendly"—he pursed up his lips—"it's keep off the grass every time. Why, she'd 非難する my 直面する if I even 一打／打撃d her arm!"

"井戸／弁護士席, manage somehow to make her take a couple of nembutal 要約する／（宇宙ロケットの）カプセルs one evening," said Madame 残酷に, "and she'll be so sleepy she'll be 完全に off her guard. I've got some in one of my drawers." She considered for a moment and then 追加するd, "I'll arrange she has to stop here late after Anna and I have gone, and it'll be up to you to do the 残り／休憩（する）."

Leopold's 注目する，もくろむs gloated. The prospect was やめる a pleasing one and he would have no compunction in trying to bring it to fruition.

So it followed that a cup of coffee about half-past four in the afternoon became an 設立するd form of refreshment at the 学校／設ける, with Dora, rather to her surprise, 存在 always 申し込む／申し出d one.

Madame had 供給するd a dainty little percolator, but it was always her brother who made the coffee and he made it very 井戸／弁護士席, too. It was 刺激するing に向かって the end of the day's work and Dora was always pleased to see it appear.

In the 合間, in the pursuance of an 意向 of finding out all she could about Madame's unlawful 行為／法令／行動するs, Dora neglected no 適切な時期 of 調査するing into her 事件／事情／状勢s. In fact she became what Madame had so dreaded—a real 秘かに調査する in the citadel.

Whenever she got the chance, when Madame was out of her room, she scanned through her correspondence, turned over the butts of her cheque 調書をとる／予約する and occasionally even got a glimpse of the 処理／取引s in her bank 調書をとる／予約する. Also, she methodically 診察するd the contents of any drawers she 設立する 打ち明けるd. In some ways Madame was careless and occasionally left her 重要なs lying on the desk.

Dora saw nothing at all dishonourable in her 調査するing. They didn't 信用 her and she was only 返すing them in their own coin. Madame was a bad woman. She was preying upon the public, and it would be 利益／興味ing to find out all her methods.

Some things which she 設立する out made her more 確かな than ever about what Madame was doing, and she was astonished at the money she was making. She saw from her pass 調書をとる／予約する that from time to time やめる 相当な sums in cash had been paid in; fifty, sixty-three and one of eighty-four 続けざまに猛撃するs. She 観察するd grimly that the two last sums had been 支払い（額）s in guineas, sixty and eighty guineas.

Then one Monday morning Anna had been sent hurriedly to the bank, and later in the week Dora saw from the butt in the cheque 調書をとる／予約する that a hundred 続けざまに猛撃するs had been drawn out. She cudgelled her brains, 推測するing as to what the hundred 続けざまに猛撃するs had been so suddenly 手配中の，お尋ね者 for, and then it （機の）カム 支援する to her that the West End doctor had arrived very soon after Anna had returned with the money and had been closeted with Madame for a few minutes. Then they had come out together, with the doctor 冷静な／正味の and professional and Madame rather 紅潮／摘発するd in the 直面する. She had 発言／述べるd to herself that Madame had been very 静かな and subdued that day.

One thing Dora had come upon when searching through the drawers had been a small 瓶／封じ込める of nembutal 要約する／（宇宙ロケットの）カプセルs and, knowing the 麻薬 to be a most powerful hypnotic, she had wondered smilingly to herself if Madame were accustomed to take them at night to quieten her 有罪の 良心. She could not imagine her giving them to a 患者 for sleeplessness, as a much milder and much いっそう少なく dangerous hypnotic would be やめる 効果的な.

As it happened, Dora had learnt something about nembutal when at the hospital in Bordeaux as, not only was it used there as a pre-anaesthetic sedative, but also it had an evil 評判 outside as it was not infrequently given to seamen from ships calling in at the port. It was known then as 'knock-out 減少（する）s' and, put in their drinks, would quickly （判決などを）下す them so 麻薬d that they could be robbed with impunity. She had heard of not a few drugged sailors who had been 選ぶd up unconscious in dark and lonely streets and taken off in an 救急車 to some hospital for 治療.

One day, to her astonishment, Madame was most polite and nice to her, giving her when she first arrived in the morning やめる a warm and friendly smile instead of the usual curt and 冷淡な nod. She continued to be agreeable all that day, which seemed to amuse Anna not a little, as if she were enjoying a good joke to herself all the time.

Somewhat late in the afternoon Madame 発表するd that she must be leaving a little earlier than usual and asked Dora very sweetly if she would kindly type out some diet sheets for her, so that they would be all ready for the first 患者 the next morning. Then she went off and, taking Anna with her, Dora was その結果 left alone in the 学校／設ける with Leopold. Dora was not in the least 関心d with the latter's presence and, never even giving him a thought, started upon the typing which she reckoned would take her about three-４半期/4分の1s of an hour.

Presently Leopold brought in the now customary coffee, and put the cup 負かす／撃墜する upon the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する 近づく where she was typing. Subconsciously, she 解任するd afterwards she had noticed his 手渡す was shaking, but had put it 負かす／撃墜する to his having had too much to drink the previous night. It was 井戸／弁護士席 known that upon occasions he indulged in that way. She thanked him and went on typing. For the moment the coffee looked too hot to drink.

A minute or two later the bell of the 学校／設ける rang はっきりと and, getting up to answer it, to her surprise Dora 設立する Leopold upon her heels as she arrived at the door. She had never before known him …に出席する to any （犯罪の）一味, as he was of the type who thought themselves much too grand to do any menial 職業s. He was an 専門家 in the rays, he used to say, and 推定する／予想するd both Anna and Dora to wait upon him.

Two workmen were waiting in the 回廊（地帯）, and one 発表するd they had come to …に出席する to one of the electric 解雇する／砲火／射撃s which had gone wrong.

Leopold appeared furious. "But you are too late," he snarled. "We are just の近くにing up. Come to-morrow."

However, the man 固執するd. "But we were told it would be all 権利 if we （機の）カム any afternoon before five, and it's only just gone half-past four." He frowned and seemed annoyed in his turn. "We're very busy, and if we don't do it now it may be a week before we can come this way again," and he 追加するd, "It may only take us a few minutes."

With evident 不本意 Leopold let them come in and led the way into Madame's 協議するing-room. Dora went 支援する to her typing, but, before starting again, took a sip of the coffee. すぐに she made a wry 直面する. The coffee tasted strange!

She took another very small sip to make sure she was not mistaken. No, there certainly was a peculiar taste, though it was not a strong one, and as she moved her tongue about to get its 十分な flavour it struck her suddenly that it was not altogether an unfamiliar one.

Why, it tasted like phenobarbital, tablets of which were often given to the 患者s in the hospital at Bordeaux to make them sleep!

Phenobarbital! What was phenobarbital doing in her coffee? And then suddenly a horrible feeling （機の）カム over her and her mouth went 乾燥した，日照りの in fright. Phenobarbital was one of the barbitone group and so was that nembutal she had seen in Madame's drawer! And they would both taste much the same!

Her thoughts coursed like 雷 through her. She remembered Madame's peculiar and ingratiating manner that day, Anna's covert smiles and, only such a few minutes ago, Leopold Haffman's shaking 手渡すs! Why, too, had she been asked so late in the afternoon to do that typing when it could just 同様に have been given her earlier in the day? Had it been done for some particular 目的, and—oh, God!—was it ーするつもりであるd she should be drugged when she would be alone with this man?

Madame, with her 操作／手術s, was a vile creature, and both Anna and Leopold knowing, of course, all that was going on would be just as bad!

But why want to 麻薬 her? Why—but her 直面する crimsoned up in shame and she gave rein to her 憶測 no longer. She became a woman of 活動／戦闘, quick 活動／戦闘, and 用意が出来ている to think of everything.

Springing up from her seat with the cup in her 手渡す, she darted over to the wash-水盤／入り江, at first minded to tip all the coffee away. However, with a nervous smile, she first put a little in the saucer. Then, with the 残り／休憩（する） emptied away, she tipped what was in the saucer 支援する into the cup.

"That'll puzzle him," she breathed. "He'll think I've 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd nothing and drunk the lot."

Snapping the portable typewriter into its 事例／患者, she collected her papers and, quickly putting on her hat and coat, with the typewriter in her 手渡す, tiptoed softly 負かす／撃墜する the passage to Madame's door. The door was ajar and, putting her 長，率いる into the room, she saw the two men working on the electric 解雇する／砲火／射撃, with Leopold standing watching them.

"I'm going, Mr. Haffman," she called out loudly. "I'll take the typewriter with me and finish the typing at home."

Leopold looked 一連の会議、交渉／完成する in a flash, with his 直面する the 熟考する／考慮する of amazement. "But—but you can't do that," he said はっきりと. "I'm going to use the typewriter myself when you've finished."

"Very 井戸／弁護士席, then," she said calmly, "I'll leave it here and borrow one at the 宿泊所." She put 負かす／撃墜する the typewriter upon the 床に打ち倒す.

"You can't go like this, I say," went on Leopold 怒って. "I want to see that the diet sheets are all 権利."

"But I am going," she retorted curtly. "I've got a 頭痛 coming on and it won't get better until I've had my tea," and as he made a move に向かって the door as if he were going to try to stop her, she pulled it to in his 直面する and darted out of the 学校／設ける.

In her short ride home in the omnibus her thoughts were terrified ones. She was sure she was not imagining everything! With her drugged and helpless, the man might have been ーするつもりであるing to do anything to her, and it would have been done with Madame's 黙認! What the latter's 動機 was she could not imagine, but it might have been that in her vile nature she was willing her brother should have his 楽しみ of her, 関わりなく all consequences that might follow.

At any 率, she told herself, she had done with the 学校／設ける and would never go 近づく it again. She frowned here. It was certainly unfortunate that everything had happened on the evening it had, as, with Madame 支払う／賃金ing her salary only on 補欠／交替の／交替する Fridays, six guineas was 予定 on the morrow. She sighed. 井戸／弁護士席, she would have to lose the money, that was all!

She arrived at the 宿泊所 in a very depressed 明言する／公表する of mind. All her 不景気, however, was at once dispelled when she 設立する waiting for her a letter from the matron of St. Jude's 説 that she could take her now and would like her to come as soon as possible.

Dora was overjoyed and at once phoned St. Jude's that she would arrive some time on the morrow. Her spirits rising at the prospect, her courage rose also, and she decided to go to the 学校／設ける for a last day so that she could collect the six guineas 借りがあるing to her. Besides, she 手配中の，お尋ね者 to see the 表現 upon the 直面するs of the conspirators when she turned up the next morning, because if she were 権利 and there had been a vile 陰謀（を企てる） against her—and she was sure there was—they would not be able to 会合，会う her in the ordinary, casual way. She would be able to tell at once by their manner に向かって her whether or not they were 有罪の, and she was やめる 確信して what the 判決 would be.

So, borrowing a typewriter from the office, she typed out the diet sheets, and she typed them out faultlessly and with no mistakes, so that Madame should have no excuse for reproof.

The next morning, her trunk and everything packed, she paid her 法案 at the 宿泊所 and told them she would be calling for her luggage later in the day.

She reached the 学校／設ける purposely a few minutes late, so that Leopold would have had the 適切な時期 of telling his sister all that had happened the previous afternoon.

Madame glared hard at her, with her 猛烈な／残忍な 注目する，もくろむs, Dora thought, one big 公式文書，認める of 尋問 before snatching the diet sheets from her without a word of thanks. Leopold looked irritable, and just gave her a curt nod instead of his usual ingratiating smile, while Anna looked so 前向きに／確かに venomous that Dora would have liked to shut herself up in the 洗面所 room and have a good giggle.

Now Dora had been やめる 権利 in her surmise that the conspirators would have talked things over before she arrived. They had, and Madame had 予定するd her brother caustically and called him a fool who had bungled things 不正に. He must have 脅すd the girl somehow and made her 怪しげな.

"But I hadn't," had snarled 支援する Leopold. "She was as 静かな and composed as she always is when I brought in the cup of coffee, and she thanked me nicely for it."

However, his sister had been unconvinced, and gave him more of her tongue after she had seen Dora upon the latter's arrival at the 学校／設ける.

"You big fool," she jeered, "that girl never had those three 穀物s of nembutal. If she'd taken half of them she couldn't come here this morning looking so fresh as she does now." She glared at him 怒って. "You didn't put in enough sugar as I told you to, and she probably took one sip and threw the 残り／休憩（する） away."

"But I tell you she didn't throw it away," 主張するd Leopold hotly. "When she had gone I 設立する her cup where she had left it on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, and it had got about a tablespoonful of the coffee still left at the 底（に届く）. If she had emptied it at the 沈む she would have emptied all of it and not left any in the cup."

"井戸／弁護士席, I don't understand it," growled Madame. "It 行為／法令／行動するs very quickly and she せねばならない have been getting on for 存在 aware of nothing in a ４半期/4分の1 of an hour."

Everything at the 学校／設ける went on as usual that morning, and when Anna returned from her usual Friday visit to the bank, Dora received her six guineas. The latter, seeing she had been paid for them, was ーするつもりであるing to work for the remaining hours of that day and then slip off without a word and never come 支援する again. If she told Madame her 意向s she thought it やめる possible that the latter, in her 激怒（する）, might 訴える手段／行楽地 to actual physical 暴力／激しさ.

Upon her return from lunch just before two o'clock, Madame sent Dora off with a grunt to buy some massaging oil at a 化学者／薬剤師's in Knightsbridge. "正確に／まさに," thought Dora, "another of those 操作／手術s," and, 決定するd to get a glimpse of the 患者 this time, she took a taxi both ways, so that she would return long before she was 推定する／予想するd.

Arriving 支援する nearly half an hour earlier than she would have done if she had come by the bus, and 会合 no one in the 回廊（地帯）, she slipped into the little cloak-room to take off her hat, but then was brought to a sudden 停止（させる） by 審理，公聴会 Madame's excited 発言する／表明する upon the telephone, and her heart almost stopped （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing at what she heard. Madame was so agitated that she had not even noticed that the 協議するing-room door was only 押し進めるd to and not 適切に shut.

"But, doctor, you must come," wailed Madame. "I tell you she's dead, and what can I do with a dead 団体／死体 here? . . . Yes, yes, I had just finished and she went off in a faint. . . . I knew it was shock and we did everything we could. . . . But you could give a 証明書 説 it was heart 失敗 from the shock of the galvanic 殴打／砲列. . . . Oh, you must come. . . . But what am I to do? ... How can I get it away? . . . But every minute's 延期する is dangerous. . . . She may have told friends, and if she doesn't return soon they may come to see what's happened. . . . No, I can't wait until it's dark. . . . Then where could I 減少（する） it in the country? . . . Oh, you must come. . . . Remember all the money I've paid you, and you'll get another hundred 続けざまに猛撃するs now! I'll——"

But Dora, with a 直面する as white as death, did not stop to listen to any more. Her only thought now was to get off the 前提s as quickly as she could.

As she had been 推定する／予想するing, another 違法な 操作／手術 had been done! The woman had died under it from shock, and the 団体／死体 was lying in the 協議するing-room! Of course, the police would have to learn about it now and everyone 設立する in the 学校／設ける would be 逮捕（する）d!

Again, to her 激しい 救済, 会合 neither Anna nor Leopold, she snatched up the 瓶／封じ込める of oil she had been sent for so that Madame should not learn she had returned and might have overheard something of the phone conversation, and fled 負かす／撃墜する the stairs and was out of the building in barely a minute.

あられ／賞賛するing a taxi, she ordered the driver to take her to the 宿泊所 and, 静めるing 負かす／撃墜する during the short 旅行, was soon able to think 明確に.

Of course, it had been that doctor Madame had been speaking to, and without a 疑問 she was accustomed to 賄賂 him ひどく to 'cover' her when anything went wrong with her 患者s. That was where that hundred 続けざまに猛撃するs had gone! But the doctor had evidently been 辞退するing to help her now, and that was why she had been so terrified at what was now going to happen.

For certainly Madame would not be able to get rid of the 団体／死体! How could she? No, she would have to call in the nearest doctor, and it wasn't likely any 賄賂 would induce him to take the 危険 of giving a death 証明書. So the police would have to be told, and, oh, God! if her, Dora's, 指名する （機の）カム to be in the newspapers——!

It would be good-bye to all hopes of a career at St. Jude's and, all apart from that, the stigma of having once been in the 雇う of a 罪人／有罪を宣告するd abortionist might 粘着する to her all her life.

However, she drew in a 深い breath and took a little hope here. If she could get away from the 宿泊所 before the police （機の）カム to the 学校／設ける, it was just possible they might never find her. She had made no friends at the 宿泊所 and no one had any idea of where she was going.

However, she had qualms of 疑問 as it （機の）カム home to her how slender was the chance that she would not be drawn into a horrible publicity. Of course the police would learn at once that there had been a fourth person at the 学校／設ける, and, if only out of spite, Madame would tell them who she was. Then, if her 指名する were advertised along with her description, how could she remain undiscovered?

The one chance was—and she took hope again—that having caught Madame and the others 現行犯で, as they certainly would do now, the police would have all the 証拠 they 手配中の，お尋ね者 and perhaps not trouble to find her.

Arriving at the 宿泊所, to her 広大な／多数の／重要な 狼狽 there was やめる a long 延期する before her trunk was brought 負かす／撃墜する, as the porter was out upon an errand and it was too 激しい for the girls to 扱う. So, a good half-hour was wasted before, finally, she was at last able to get off, and then, in a loud 発言する／表明する so that everyone could hear, she ordered the taxi-driver to take her to Waterloo 駅／配置する.

Suddenly, as she was 存在 driven along, the disconcerting thought （機の）カム to her that after all Madame might manage to escape from the dreadful position in which she now 設立する herself and not 落ちる into the 手渡すs of the police. She was a bold and resolute woman, and when night （機の）カム might 密輸する the 団体／死体 away in her car, 可決する・採択するing the suggestion made to her over the phone and carry it to some lonely place in the country.

Why, even in Epping Forest not a dozen miles out of town there were plenty of such places where a 団体／死体 might 嘘（をつく） under the 厚い carpet of leaves for many months before it was discovered.

Another thing, too, in Madame's favour. The poor creature who had come to her for the 操作／手術 in all probability had told no one where she was going, so when she failed to return, her relations would be able to furnish no 手がかり（を与える） as to what had happened to her.

Then Dora's thoughts harking 支援する to the vile 試みる／企てる which she was sure had been made the previous evening to 廃虚 her, and which she was 平等に sure, too, had been made with Madame's 黙認, she was filled with such loathing for the woman that the sudden 決意／決議 （機の）カム to her that at all 危険s to herself Madame should not escape.

So, arriving at Waterloo, she had her luggage taken to the cloak-room and then, with shaking 脚s and quickly （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing heart, went into a telephone-box and rang up Scotland Yard.

Not wasting a moment when her call was answered, she began breathlessly, "Go at once to the 学校／設ける of Perfect Health in——" but a 発言する／表明する interrupted her by asking はっきりと, "Who's speaking?"

"Never mind that," she 反対するd, "but you do as I say. The 学校／設ける is upon the fourth 床に打ち倒す of Alma 議会s in Shaftesbury Avenue. There's the dead 団体／死体 of a woman there. She had just died from shock. Go 即時に, for they may try to 除去する it. The 事柄's very 緊急の," and giving the 発言する／表明する at the other end no 適切な時期 of asking any その上の questions, she hung up the receiver and darted from the telephone-box.

Engaging another taxi, she was driven with her luggage to St. Jude's Hospital and heaved a sigh of 深い 救済 when she was deposited there and the taxi had gone off. For the moment, at any 率, she was 安全な.

In the 合間 her message had been passed on to 視察官 Hatherleigh, who happened to be on 義務 at the Yard, and he frowned ひどく. "May be only a hoax," he scowled, "but I'll have to chance that. We'll go at once. That Madame woman was so insolent that I'd almost give my 権利 手渡す to catch her."

So いっそう少なく than a ４半期/4分の1 of an hour later the 視察官, …を伴ってd by two plainclothes officers, and a member of the Women Police, arrived very 静かに at the door of the 学校／設ける. The door was shut, but with his ear 圧力（をかける）d hard against the 割れ目, the 視察官 could distinctly hear the hum of low 発言する／表明するs.

He 圧力（をかける）d upon the bell and the 発言する／表明するs at once stopped, though the door still remained の近くにd. His 注目する，もくろむs gleamed. So the message had been no hoax and there was a good kill coming.

He 押し進めるd the bell again, and still getting no answer, proceeded to 非難する loudly with his knuckles upon the door. "The London 表明する 配達／演説／出産 here," he called out with a wink 一連の会議、交渉／完成する at his subordinates. "I've got a 小包 for Madame de Roche."

A few moments' waiting and the door was at last opened by Anna. She gasped and her 直面する went a dreadful colour when she recognised the 視察官, but he 押し進めるd by her and strode across to where he knew from his previous visit was Madame's room.

His heart gave a mighty bound of 勝利.

Madame and her brother were busy cording up an ottoman.

In the 続いて起こるing weeks, as can be 井戸／弁護士席 imagined, Dora went through a terribly anxious time. She was always 推定する／予想するing a sudden 召喚するs to the matron's room and to find herself 直面するd there by 厳しい-直面するd 探偵，刑事s from Scotland Yard with a 令状 for her 逮捕（する）.

The day に引き続いて upon her arrival at the hospital, in the nurses' recreation-room, she had seen in an evening newspaper that Madame, her brother and Anna had all been up before a 治安判事 and committed for 裁判，公判, and she wondered pitifully if she herself were 存在 traced and in a few hours would be 逮捕（する）d, too.

Still, as day upon day passed with nothing happening, her peace of mind returned, and she began to think that perhaps the police had never even come to know of her 存在.

However, she was wrong there, as the police had learnt from the porter at Alma 議会s that there had been a fourth person, a young girl who had not been very long there, associated with the others at the 学校／設ける.

When questioned about her by the 視察官, Madame 発言／述べるd scoffingly, "Don't waste your breath, 視察官. You know all about her." She nodded viciously. "You 港／避難所't been pulling the wool over my 注目する，もくろむs やめる as much as you imagine you have, as I was 怪しげな from the very first that she was your 秘かに調査する." She jeered mockingly. "She's an attractive girl, isn't she, 視察官? No 疑問 she is one of your lights of love?"

The 視察官 was very puzzled. Still, he 後継するd in finding out from Anna that Dora had come from the Women's 宿泊所 近づく King's Cross, and, accordingly, sent two men there to make enquiries. When, however, the men （機の）カム 支援する, all the （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） they could give was that a 行方不明になる Dane had stayed there for nine weeks, but had left suddenly upon the afternoon when the 学校／設ける had been （警察の）手入れ，急襲d, and it was not known where she had gone.

The 視察官 considered. After all, he was not very keen about finding her, as he had caught Madame with all the 証拠 he 手配中の，お尋ね者. Besides, he shrewdly 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd that it was this 行方不明の girl who had rung up the Yard that 致命的な afternoon. 追加するd to that, the porter at Alma 議会s had 述べるd her as 存在 a superior type, and not likely to have been aware of the unlawful work which had been going on, as upon two occasions he had heard Madame 存在 most abusive to her.

So, all things taken into account, no その上の 成果／努力s were made to trace Dora, and some six weeks later, when the 裁判，公判 （機の）カム on, she felt やめる 確信して she need no longer 恐れる any trouble.

All the three （刑事）被告 were 設立する 有罪の upon 確かな 明示するd counts. Madame was 宣告，判決d to seven years' hard 労働, and Leopold and Anna each to three. The 裁判長 congratulated the police upon the celerity with which they had brought the 犯罪のs to 調書をとる／予約する.

CHAPTER IV. — THE PRECIPICE SIDE

WITHIN a very few days of her arrival at St. Jude's Dora was やめる sure there could not be a nicer lot of girls anywhere than those の中で whom she was now 運命にあるd to work, and that was smilingly impressed upon her by her 同僚s themselves. She was told how particular Matron Paridy was about whom she 受託するd as probationers, as it was 一般に believed that, to 満足させる her as to their fitness, not only must applicants be of irreproachable character, 井戸／弁護士席 educated and come from a good-class family, but also they must have the 外見 of 存在 of a pleasant disposition and 所有する more than just passable good looks.

From the very first Dora had been most favourably impressed by the matron and, as time went on, she realised more and more how 権利 her judgment had been. Built rather on the small 味方する, Matron Paridy had a 肉親，親類d and gentle 直面する, with nothing haughty and pompous about it. She liked to regard those working under her as all children of a large family, but for all that she 支配するd them with a 棒 of アイロンをかける, and woe betide any の中で them who was brought before her for a deserved reproof.

"I must have efficiency," she would say to the 違反者／犯罪者. "We pride ourselves here that we have the best hospital in London, and you must do your part so that we can continue to think so. You've been careless, and I can't have careless girls here. You mustn't become slack and 許す yourself to make mistakes. So, if you are brought before me again I shall have to think 本気で of telling you you must leave us," and she would 解任する the girl with a kindly pat upon the shoulder.

When Dora had first arrived the matron had asked Elsie Waring, a 上級の probationer, to put her in the way of everything. "Elsie Waring's not only a clever girl," she told her, "but a very charming one 同様に, and you won't find her やめる so formidable as you might a sister."

Certainly Elsie was clever. For a year she had been at Girton College, Cambridge, ーするつもりであるing to take her degree in arts and make teaching her profession. However, changing her mind, she had suddenly 決定するd to （問題を）取り上げる nursing and nearly three years 以前 had started at St. Jude's. Undeniably very attractive, with big blue 注目する，もくろむs and rich auburn hair, she was of a 有望な and merry disposition. Always witty and amusing, she was not only 有能な in her work at the hospital, but was also, she would aver laughingly, wise in the ways of the world. She was three years older than Dora.

"And I suppose Matron has told you," she laughed, "that St. Jude's is by far the best hospital in all the world. 井戸／弁護士席, we certainly couldn't have more distinguished doctors than we've got here. They are all of them the aristocrats of the profession and three or four of them have 王族 の中で their 患者s. So, いつかs they'll come straight from …に出席するing the highest in the land to palpate the tummy of a costermonger's girl."

"Are they very stuck-up?" asked Dora, a little awed.

"Not 正確に／まさに," replied Elsie. "I'd rather call them aloof. You see—a doctor on the staff of any hospital knows all the sisters and nurses have been taught to look upon him as a little god. They have to wait upon him as if they were inferior 存在s, or slaves who'd get their 長，率いるs chopped off if they did anything wrong. So that makes them think they're tremendously important people."

"I know that," laughed Dora. "Don't forget I was two years in a hospital in Bordeaux, though it was certainly a rather small one."

"And how did you find the doctors when you met them outside the hospital?" asked Elsie.

Dora shook her 長，率いる. "I never had anything to do with them."

"Innocent!" laughed Elsie. "井戸／弁護士席, I've met some of ours outside," she went on, "and 設立する, as I might have 推定する／予想するd, that 会合 us away from the hospital they forget we're nurses and, if at all pretty, regard us at once as 望ましい 女性（の）s. If they're over thirty and getting on に向かって middle-age, as of course most of them are before they can get taken on the staff here, 直接／まっすぐに they get us alone they start at first 存在 fatherly"—she laughed merrily—"but very soon want to become husbandly, and need telling when they must stop." She lowered her 発言する／表明する mysteriously. "Why, do you know at the Nurses' Ball last year, when I had a dance with the 冷淡な and haughty Sir Miles Braddock—Sir Miles is one of our 上級の 外科医s here"—she threw out her 手渡すs 劇的な—"what do you think he started to do when he'd taken me out into the grounds to get, as he put it, a breath of fresh 空気／公表する—to me, one of the despised nurses at whom he had so often scowled when he was doing an op. in the theatre?"

"Put his arm 一連の会議、交渉／完成する your waist, I suppose?" 示唆するd Dora, very amused.

"Poof! That was only a beginning," scoffed Elsie, "and a very short one, too. No, he started to try to kiss me as if we'd been old pals for ever so long."

"And did you let him?" asked Dora with a smile.

Elsie looked modestly 負かす／撃墜する her nose. "I might have let him for just a few moments," she 認める, "for it was so funny with his prim old missus tucking in to strawberries and cream in the hall not fifty yards away." She nodded. "Besides, I thought it might be good for 商売／仕事, and that I should be a 示すd girl in 未来 and he'd 押し進める my 利益／興味s here with Matron."

"And did he?" asked Dora.

"Did he!" laughed Elsie merrily. "No, not a bit of it! In fact I thought he scowled at me more nastily than ever the next time he saw me. The ungrateful old wretch!"

Dora turned the conversation. "I suppose there are a lot of 広大な／多数の／重要な specialists here?" she asked.

Elsie nodded. "The best in the kingdom, with the cream of all special knowledge from 長，率いるs 負かす／撃墜する to toes." She frowned. "But my dear old dad's rather taught me to be afraid of specialists. He's a doctor, too, an ordinary general practitioner in the Midlands, and believes so much of the 治療s they give are unnecessary. If you go to one of these big bugs he may make a tremendous hullabaloo about whatever you've got the 事柄 with you and run up big 法案s with cultures and 注射s and all sorts of expensive things. 反して if you go to an ordinary doctor it's just as likely he'll put you 権利 with something quick and cheap."

She laughed. "You see—if you're a specialist you're 自然に inclined to welcome 適切な時期s to give your speciality a run. Your special knowledge seems to take 所有／入手 of your whole mind. Look at our Dr. Bankes Boulter here, for example. He's a 広大な／多数の／重要な 当局 on syphilis, and his brother 医療の men say he's so keen on it that he's come to look at everybody through a syphilitic 煙霧. He's sure nearly all of us have either acquired it ourselves or else 相続するd traces of it from our dads and mums, or their parents before them."

"If I were a 広大な／多数の／重要な doctor," commented Dora, "I'd like to be a 広大な／多数の／重要な 外科医. The operating theatre always gives me a big thrill."

"Of course it does," agreed Elsie, "and it does nearly everybody else, too. There's real 演劇 there, with the hushed silence, the white-gowned sisters standing 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, and the 外科医 the arbiter of life and death." She held up her 手渡す warningly. "And there's a 広大な／多数の／重要な danger to the public, if they only knew, in all this theatrical 影響, as, with the glamour about 操作／手術s, nearly every young doctor, 直接／まっすぐに he gets his diploma, wants to take to the knife at once. So I'm sure thousands and thousands of 操作／手術s are done which needn't have been, with the wretched 患者 never getting the 利益 of the 疑問.

"I'll tell you something else you probably don't know," she went on. "It's much harder to find a good 内科医 than a good 外科医. My dad says lots of doctors can do a splendid 操作／手術 and yet be duds outside their surgical work. He 断言するs it takes a far better man to be a 広大な／多数の／重要な 協議するing 内科医 than to be a good 外科医, as the 内科医 has to を取り引きする the minds of the 患者s 同様に as with their 団体／死体s."

Dora laughed. "But I suppose, after 存在 nearly three years at a big hospital like this," she said, "all doctors are heroes in your 注目する，もくろむs?"

Elsie considered. "井戸／弁護士席, not 正確に／まさに," she replied, "though I always regard theirs as the most noble of all callings."

"Is your father clever?" asked Dora, and she 追加するd smilingly, "But, of course, he must be to have a daughter like you."

"Flatterer!" laughed Elsie. "Yes, he is clever and one of the best-read men I ever knew, which only goes to 証明する what I always say—that you can't have a clever doctor unless he's a clever man outside his profession 同様に. Find a man who's got no breadth of 見通し on life, who has no imagination and doesn't read 調書をとる／予約するs—and if he's a doctor, he's never a good one. That doesn't 適用する so much to 外科医s as to 内科医s, for a 外科医's work is to some extent mechanical." She nodded again. "Keep your 注目する，もくろむs open as you go along and see if I'm not 権利."

Dora was longer than four years at St. Jude's, and in the course of that time her whole nature seemed to を受ける a 広大な／多数の／重要な change for the better. 完全に happy in her surroundings, she became much いっそう少なく bitter against the world 一般に and threw off not a little of her 熟考する／考慮するd reserve. Taking part in the social life of the hospital in the dances and conversaziones, she was brought in 接触する with many of the other sex and speedily got rid of the idea that every man who was polite to her was ーするつもりであるing to seduce her.

Developing, as her mother had so 情愛深く 心配するd, into a beautiful and aristocratic-looking woman, she had yet more than her good looks to recommend her, with her 宙に浮く and natural dignity always 需要・要求するing 尊敬（する）・点. Of course she had many admirers, but, save for a few 穏やかな flirtations, she kept them all 井戸／弁護士席 at a distance.

Though, as we have seen, of a much deeper character than her mother, strangely enough, the latter's 影響（力） over her was stronger now than it had ever been when she was alive, with the dead 手渡す reaching out beyond the 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な and 持つ／拘留するing her in a 副／悪徳行為-like 支配する. To find her father was the secret 遺産／遺物 which had been left her, and to do so was the greatest incentive in her life.

She was やめる 確かな that one day she would learn who he was and, with the がまんするing obsession that she would then find him in a high social circle, she was 決定するd when she did make herself known to him that they should both be 会合 on equal 条件. さもなければ, she told herself, if a nonentity and a woman of no standing, when she （機の）カム to call him to account for the way he had dealt with her mother—and she most resolutely ーするつもりであるd to do that—the judgment she would pass upon him would lose much of its 軍隊. She would be able to sting far deeper, she was sure, if by her own 成果／努力, and with no help from him, she had raised herself to be his equal in the social 規模.

Often, however, when she considered in 冷淡な 血 the 見込み of her ever learning who he was, she would sigh 深く，強烈に. The world was so very wide and chance played so 広大な／多数の／重要な a part in the ordering of people's lives. Still—and she would at once take heart again—the improbable and the seemingly impossible did いつかs happen, and she was sure it was going to with her.

At any 率, she had two 手がかり（を与える）s to help her. She knew her father's Christian 指名する must be the unusual one of Athol, as in her dying hours her mother had many times called upon that 指名する. Another thing, too, she remembered, looking 支援する to her childhood and girlhood days, and that was how 利益／興味d her mother had always been in the crooked little finger of her, Dora's, left 手渡す. She would smilingly draw her attention to it, never seeming to regard it as a deformity, but rather as if it were something to be proud of. Occasionally she would kiss it, and so for a long time now it had been in Dora's mind that it must be something unusual that she had 相続するd from her father.

Dora often laughed mockingly here. A man who had a crooked little finger and whose Christian 指名する was Athol! How 平易な he would be to find!

Dora's work at the hospital could not have been better, and in most ways she was an ideal nurse. Most 有能な, and with infinite patience, she was always 同情的な に向かって anyone in 苦しむing, and her nature never 常習的な by its familiarity with 苦痛, as is unhappily the 事例／患者 with so many of her calling. The 患者s loved her, and many a fretful child would at once 中止する its crying only with her, as she held its little 手渡す or 一打／打撃d the fevered little forehead with her 冷静な／正味の white fingers.

Once, when the matron was ill, she 選ぶd upon Dora, of all the other nurses, to …に出席する to her. "I feel 安全な with you, dear," she smiled. "You've got something of the 傷をいやす／和解させるing presence, and I should always be happy if it were you who were nursing anyone I loved."

The 医療の staff, too, never had anything but good words for her, and it was said by the nurses that it was only to her Sir Robert Griffin, one of the 上級の 内科医s and a 冷淡な 厳しい man, gave his rare smile.

"Of course he's in love with you, Dora," laughed Elsie. "He follows you about with his 注目する，もくろむs. If it weren't for old Lady Griffin I'm sure he'd be wanting to marry you."

"Thank you," laughed 支援する Dora. "But if or when I do marry, it'll be someone not old enough to be my father."

Dora had had two 申し込む／申し出s of marriage, one from an assistant 外科医, on the staff, and the other, of all people, from the middle-老年の chaplain of the hospital. The young 外科医 she certainly liked 井戸／弁護士席 enough. He was very much in love with her, good-looking, and everyone prophesied for him a brilliant career. However, Dora did not think he would ever be able to give her the social position she 手配中の，お尋ね者, and so she turned him 負かす／撃墜する やめる nicely, but with a 限定された 拒絶.

With the chaplain she had a lot of difficulty in 納得させるing him she could never be his wife. A high churchman approaching forty years of age, he had been proof against all the attractions of the other sex until he had been introduced to Dora, and then, with all the madness of the middle-老年の man who was experiencing passion for the fest time, all his 力／強力にする of 抵抗 seemed to have left him.

He started his courtship by 示唆するing she should …に出席する the services at his church. Next, he wrote her a special 招待 to come to one of his parish concerts, and then asked if he should get the matron to 許す her a day off so that she could help with his 年次の 祝日，祝う.

At last, finding these 前進するs of no avail, he boldly 提案するd to her when he met her one afternoon in the street. She was most embarrassed, but told him きっぱりと she could never be a clergyman's wife and, apart from that, did not ーするつもりである to marry at all, as her profession was her only 利益／興味 in life.

It ended in her disconsolate suitor 辞職するing his chaplaincy at St. Jude's so that he should not have the unhappiness of seeing her after her 拒絶 of his 申し込む／申し出 to marry him.

"And that's another heart you've broken, Dora," reproved Elsie in 影響する／感情d sadness, "but with those 注目する，もくろむs of yours I am sure there are other 悲劇s to come."

すぐに afterwards, Dora had yet a third 提案 and, though she was furious at the 条件 課すd upon it, she could never think of it without laughing.

Elsie and she had continued to be 広大な／多数の／重要な friends, and one summer along with her and another nurse she spent a three weeks' holiday at a hydropathic in Harrogate. All three were good-looking girls and attracted a lot of 利益／興味. の中で their 共同の admirers was an 年輩の Scotchman from Glasgow, by 指名する of Angus Charles McRob.

He was a widower, in 明白に 井戸／弁護士席-to-do circumstances, and though he had already been married twice he made no secret that he was now looking for number three. He was 大いに attracted by all the three nurses and to their 広大な／多数の／重要な amusement told them やめる 本気で that one or other of them might soon become the next Mrs. McRob.

Regarding his attentions as a good joke, they rather encouraged him and let him take them about, always, however, all three together, upon モーター excursions, to theatres and concerts and the other amusements of the spa.

Then, one evening after dinner when they were all sitting together upon a seat in the grounds of the hydro, he patted Dora upon the 膝 and 発表するd suddenly he had made up his mind at last, and that she was the chosen one.

Dora reddened uncomfortably at the realisation of the ぎこちない position to which their foolish 激励 of him had led her, while her two friends giggled delightedly.

Then Mr. McRob went on to tell them with a crafty smile that he had been 'a canny mon' all his life and was やめる aware of what sort of girls so many nurses were. So there was a 条件, he said, 大（公）使館員d to his 提案 before it was 'offeecial' and could be made public.

The three girls held their breaths, all agog in curiosity as to what the 条件 might be. Then it （機の）カム out.

On the morrow, he said, "to make su-ure she was a gude girrl," Dora was to go across to a doctor friend of his for "a 少しの bit examination."

For a moment there was a dead silence, while Mr. McRob looked smilingly at one and the other of them as if waiting for their 賞賛 of his cleverness. Then Elsie burst into a shriek of laughter, while Dora was so furious that she gave him a resounding smack on the 直面する.

非，不，無 of the three became the third Mrs. McRob.

Not very long before Dora 最終的に （機の）カム to leave St. Jude's, a 広大な／多数の／重要な happening occurred in her life, and for a time, at any 率, it seemed as if all her ambitious dreaming was to be thrown to the 勝利，勝つd.

She fell in love and with a man who in no way 実行するd the 必要物／必要条件s she had so often 主張するd to herself were necessary for the end she had in 見解（をとる）.

By 指名する of Eric Dalton Chalmers, undeniably handsome and of an attractive 外見, he was fifteen years older than Dora. Certainly he was 井戸／弁護士席-educated and （機の）カム of a good family, but his relations had long since cast him off and, as Dora was to learn later, he was a man of loose and bad character, and it was even said he had been in 刑務所，拘置所. He had no money and with his careless and irresponsible disposition had made every 占領／職業 he followed—and he had followed many in his time—an 不成功の one.

Strangely enough, nearly everyone liked him and was ready to find excuses for him. Merry and light-hearted, he was good company wherever he went, and through all his bad social lapses yet continued to carry something of the gentleman about him. With all things favourable, he might indeed cheat at cards, with no pangs of 良心 let 負かす／撃墜する every tradesman who was foolish enough to 信用 him, but he regarded a 賭事ing 負債 as a 負債 of honour and would go to 広大な／多数の／重要な lengths to 発射する／解雇する it.

Dora was introduced to him at a Chelsea Arts Ball, and as he led her out on to the 床に打ち倒す, for no 推論する／理由 that she could understand her heart began to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 a little faster. With his bold 注目する，もくろむs looking 負かす／撃墜する possessively, he smiled at her with what she thought was a most fascinating smile. "So you're a nurse, are you?" he said. "井戸／弁護士席, you're much too pretty to be one, as with you nursing me I'm sure I should never want to get 井戸／弁護士席."

He was a good ダンサー, and Dora sighed 深く，強烈に in a strange delight at his の近くに proximity to her in the glorious melody of the beautiful Blue Danube waltz. Later, they sat out two dances and were soon chatting interestedly as if they were やめる old friends. Indeed, afterwards Dora was in the way of 存在 rather ashamed that she had told him so much about herself. However, his own 信用／信任s had led her on and he spoke so candidly there that she could not help becoming すぐに 利益／興味d in him.

As a rolling 石／投石する, he said, he had knocked about in many parts of the world, but had never done much good anywhere. He was a 徹底的な bad egg, he laughed, and always had been. He thought, however, that he had been happiest when serving in フラン during the First 広大な／多数の／重要な War. Then, with all its horrors, life had been carefree and exhilarating, with the fighting coming like continued 深い draughts of the best シャンペン酒. His return to civil life had been a 広大な／多数の／重要な flop and taken all his moral strength from him.

"No, I am not married," he smiled, "but don't you go building any hopes there, as I'm not a marrying man. For one thing I'm much too fickle and want to make a fuss of every pretty girl I see. I shouldn't have asked to be introduced to you if you were the least bit plain."

"Then I'm not 安全な with you," laughed 支援する Dora, やめる thrilled to think that she was running into danger.

"No, I'm a 爆弾 to all young and attractive 女性（の）s," he grinned cheerfully. "So you look out and remember I have 警告するd you." He pretended to sigh. "Just now my wings are clipped a bit, as I'm pretty hard up. I'm only scratching along as a 黒人／ボイコット-and-white artist."

Later, in bidding her good-bye, he gave her 手渡す a gentle squeeze and whispered, without going through the 形式順守 of asking for any 許可, that he'd （犯罪の）一味 her up one day and take her out to dinner somewhere to see a bit of life. "When I've sold some of my sketches," he 追加するd, "and am in 基金s again."

Dora laughed happily that she wasn't sure whether she'd come, but for all that she knew she would.

There was no 疑問 he had made a 広大な／多数の／重要な impression upon her, and that night before she went to sleep her thoughts were 十分な of him. He had struck some chord in her woman's nature which no man had ever vibrated before, not because he was good-looking, but for some other 質 he 所有するd, a 質 which, however, she could not analyse.

In the days which followed, when no message from him （機の）カム through, she took to wondering if she would ever 会合，会う him again, each time, however, 解任するing the idea as impossible. He was not that 肉親，親類d of man, she told herself, for, with all the bad character he had so candidly given himself, she was sure he was one who would always keep a 約束 if he could.

So she was not at all surprised when one evening she 設立する herself called to the phone and heard his 発言する／表明する speaking. As once before, the beatings of her heart quickened.

"Thought I'd forgotten you?" he asked, and she was about to reply she hadn't thought about the 事柄 at all when she suddenly changed her mind and replied, "No, I thought you'd （犯罪の）一味 some day," and she 追加するd laughingly, "Then you're in 基金s again?"

"Just for a little while," he laughed, "but it won't last long; money never does with me. Now what about me calling for you and giving you that dinner I 約束d? Can you manage, say, to-morrow night?"

He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to call for her at the hospital, but she wouldn't have that, and so it was arranged they should 会合，会う at the tube 駅／配置する in Piccadilly. Though she was 早期に at the rendezvous, he was earlier still, and the moment he saw her he exclaimed fervently, "My word, but you're a little beauty, aren't you?" and she thrilled at the 賞賛 she saw in his 注目する，もくろむs.

He took her to Claridge's, and it was 井戸／弁護士席 he had 調書をとる／予約するd a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する as the place was thronged. Dora looked 一連の会議、交渉／完成する with a 紅潮／摘発するd 直面する and 広範囲にわたって-opened 注目する，もくろむs. The suggestion of wealth was everywhere. Superbly-gowned women seemed to 占領する every （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, and never before, except in a jeweller's window, had she seen such beautiful precious 石／投石するs. Most of the men, too, looked distinguished and as if, even if they were not の中で the best-born, they had at least made their 示す in some important walk of life.

Dora's feelings were almost 圧倒的な ones, for here at last, she thought, she was getting a glimpse of that greater world in which one day, she had always dreamed, she would move herself.

公式文書，認めるing her unmistakable 評価 of her surroundings, Chalmers was delighted at the 楽しみ she was so 明白に experiencing. "Plenty of money here," he 発言／述べるd, and he smiled whimsically. "It's a sure thing that everybody has got more money than you or I."

"But you shouldn't have brought me," reproved Dora 温かく. "It'll cost you far too much of the little you say you have."

"Nonsense," laughed Chalmers, "I've always lived in the 現在の, and to-night, with you as my companion, I'm having a little stroll through 楽園." He made a grimace. "Of course, I know I'll be turned out to-morrow, but no one will be able to take the memory from me." He looked tenderly at her. "So enjoy yourself, little one, while we are walking in this garden of 有望な flowers."

For a few (n)艦隊／(a)素早いing seconds Dora's happiness was 冷気／寒がらせるd by the way he was regarding her. He was giving her all he could, and in return would get little out of her. She ought not to have come out with him! She was 主要な him on!

However, these uneasy moments passed quickly, and she took 利益／興味 again in the people around her. "What a lovely, aristocratic-looking girl," she exclaimed, "that one at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する over there with the carnations. The old man with her might be her grandfather."

Chalmers looked 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and then laughed scoffingly. "Grandfather—not a bit of it!" he exclaimed. "I happen to know who they are. They're husband and wife, Sir Guy and Lady Beeming, and she's twenty and he's sixty-five. Their wedding, not six months ago, was a wonderful society 事件／事情／状勢." He looked 一連の会議、交渉／完成する again. "Yes, she does look an aristocrat. I'm sure everyone would say that."

"But I wonder why she ever （機の）カム to marry him?" frowned Dora.

"No wonder at all," retorted Chalmers 即時に. "He's as rich as Croesus and two years before she married him, before she'd gone into the chorus at Sadler's 井戸／弁護士席s, she was helping in her parents' shop in Hoxton. They were little greengrocers there in a small by-street and——But oh, see that tall gaunt man there, who's as hideous as the woman seated opposite him is lovely?"

"Yes, I see him," replied Dora. "He looks a 十分な brother to Satan to me."

"But he's a most distinguished man," frowned Chalmers. "He's Sir Charles Carrion, one of the world's greatest 外科医s, and they say his 料金 was fifty thousand guineas when he went to India last year to operate upon a fabulously 豊富な Rajah there."

"I've heard of him," exclaimed Dora in some excitement. "We've got his 復部の Viscera in the hospital library, but fancy such a 広大な／多数の／重要な man 存在 so ugly!"

"And there's another 広大な／多数の／重要な man," went on Chalmers, "and neither would he take a prize in a beauty show now. He's Lord Rabbin, the painter, the 大統領 of the 王室の 学院, and I'd get no change out of five thousand guineas if I got him to paint you."

"Then it's a good thing you 港／避難所't got it to throw away," laughed Dora. She 示すd the woman with Lord Rabbin. "And I suppose she's his wife."

Chalmers nodded. "What do you think of her?"

Dora considered. "井戸／弁護士席, she looks rather like a vulture now, but I should say she wasn't bad-looking once."

"Bad-looking!" exclaimed Chalmers. "Not if what I've heard is true." He spoke emphatically. "Do you know, Dora, that forty and more years ago theirs was a romantic love-story that stirred society to its very depths. I've heard my mother speak about it. Young Rabbin was a struggling artist then, without a penny, and that woman whom you say is like a vulture now was the only daughter of the Marquis of Rivington, and one of the loveliest girls of her year. Now she's blue 血, if you like, with ancestors going 支援する for a thousand years and more—and she just eloped with him before she was nineteen."

"And they've been happy?" asked Dora.

"Undoubtedly," replied Chalmers. He smiled. "At any 率 they've had seven or eight children, and there's a granddaughter now who's said to be even more lovely than her grandmother was."

"But how do you come to know so much about these people?" asked Dora curiously.

Chalmers frowned. "Before I 不名誉d my family I was friendly with some of them." He 追加するd 激しく, "As we （機の）カム in here I noticed a man I used to know 井戸／弁護士席, years ago, but he pretended not to see me."

A short silence followed and then Dora asked hesitatingly, and with a little catch in her breath, "Do you happen—do you happen to have ever heard of a man whose Christian 指名する is Athol?"

"Athol! Athol!" repeated Chalmers slowly and as if searching his memory. He nodded. "Yes, I believe I've heard of several. But who's the particular one you want to know about?"

Dora laughed nervously. "I don't know. I want to find out. He's someone, I should think, in good society. But what ones have you heard of with that Christian 指名する?"

Chalmers shook his 長，率いる. "I can't remember, though it's in my mind somehow that I've heard of one in particular." He nodded. "However, it'll certainly come 支援する before long."

"Then be sure and tell me," said Dora 真面目に, and he 約束d he would.

The meal over, they went into St. James's Park, and for an hour and longer sat talking upon one of the seats before he took her 支援する to the hospital in a taxi. He was most circumspect and, in parting, gave her no more than a squeeze of the 手渡す.

On two more evenings he took her out again, with Dora realising with some fright that she was getting really fond of him. He was so natural and boyish, and she was sure that at 底（に届く） there was little wrong with him. It was only, she thought, that during all his life he had met no one who had an 影響（力） for good with him. Married happily, he would have turned out to be a man very different from what he was always impressing her he was now.

Excusing herself for her growing friendship with him by 主張するing it was more maternal than anything else, she gave little real thought, however, to how it was going to end. It was just, she sighed, that they were both enjoying the 現在の, with no regard to the 未来, and she kept on 保証するing herself that she would definitely 辞退する to marry him if ever it happened that he （機の）カム to ask her.

Still, one thing was disquieting to her. The 予期しない and 熱烈な kiss he had given her in parting upon the third night she had been out with him had not been without its 影響, for, when thinking about it later, she had trembled many times at the memory of the ecstasy it had given her. However, she 保証するd herself that never, never would she 許す him to go その上の than a kiss.

Then for three weeks she heard nothing of him, until he rang up, making another 任命 for dinner and a picture afterwards. This time it was to no magnificent Claridge's he took her, but to a small foreign restaurant in Soho. He was rather silent during the meal, and several times she thought he was regarding her curiously.

Out in the street again, and walking に向かって where they were going to see the picture, he stopped suddenly and said, "Oh, damn the pictures! I don't feel inclined to go to one to-night. Instead, I'll take you to my studio and you shall see some of my sketches," and without waiting for her assent he あられ／賞賛するd a taxi and 手渡すd her into it.

Now Dora was no fool and her 膝s shook under her in the privacy of the taxi when he put his arm 一連の会議、交渉／完成する her waist and gently pulled her to him to kiss her. What was now going to happen to her, she asked herself fearfully? Up to then she had never been alone with him in any building, and the very thought 脅すd her, while at the same time she knew she was not going unwillingly.

What did it mean? she asked herself. What—but his kisses seemed to benumb all her 力／強力にするs of 推論する／理由ing, and the rapture of lying limp in his 武器 and returning his caresses made her oblivious of everything else.

The 運動 was a short one, and pulling up at a small house in a little street off Sloan Square he opened the door with his 重要な and led her up to his studio on the first 床に打ち倒す.

"I 株 this with a friend," he said, speaking a little huskily, "but he's away this week and so"—he turned away his 注目する，もくろむs—"we shall be all alone. Take off your hat dear, and make yourself at home."

With shaking 手渡すs, she did as she was told and laid the hat upon a 議長，司会を務める. Then, with her breath coming quickly, she turned to 直面する him.

He was looking at her with all the ecstasy of an 受託するd lover and, with his 注目する，もくろむs 向こうずねing and his lips parted, moved に向かって her to take her in his 武器.

Suddenly, however, and as if in a flash of startled 発見, he stopped dead. He dropped his 広範囲にわたって-opened 武器, he stood hesitating and then, all in an instant, from a 広大な／多数の／重要な tenderness the whole 表現 of his 直面する became hard and 厳しい.

"Sit there," he ordered 厳しく, pointing to a settee. "I'm going to talk to you," and, turning a 議長，司会を務める 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, he sat 負かす／撃墜する 直面するing her, with his 武器 倍のd upon the 議長，司会を務める 支援する.

Dora was thunderstruck, and if her 四肢s now shook under her it was from sheer fright because he was looking at her so furiously.

"You damned little fool," he burst out; "you've got no more sense than the 残り／休憩（する） of them. You women tempt us men beyond all endurance and then, when you've raised the devil in us, you whine at the consequences." He raised his 発言する／表明する 怒って. "Why did you 許す yourself to come here alone with me? Didn't your instinct, let alone your ありふれた sense, tell you I wasn't the 肉親，親類d of man to stop at kisses once you had let me start taking them?" He gritted his teeth savagely. "Oh, yes, you were guessing 権利 enough what I had brought you here for, and don't you pretend you didn't know やめる 井戸／弁護士席 the danger you were running into."

He spoke scoffingly. "And now can you make another guess, 行方不明になる Dane, and ask yourself why what you were in such danger of is not going to happen, why you are 存在 saved from your own damned stupidity."

Dora had gone as white as death at so 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の and bitter an 爆発 from the man whom, in spite of all her grand 決意／決議s, she had come to love, and she was so 圧倒するd that she was in no 条件 to utter even a 選び出す／独身 word. She sat on, with her heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing painfully.

Chalmers, as if not 推定する／予想するing any answer to his questions, went on much more 静かに and almost in conversational トンs now. "井戸／弁護士席, I'll tell you." He drew in a 深い breath. "You know, young woman, you've always been a bit of a puzzle to me. You puzzled me almost from that first moment when I was introduced to you. To begin with, I thought you were a good girl, a young lady as yet untouched by the coarseness of any of us wicked men, but soon"—he frowned—"I began to take you to be something of an old stager, with perhaps not a little of experience behind you. That idea grew upon me and so"—he shrugged his shoulders—"I just brought you here to 伸び（る） a little more experience still."

He paused a few moments and then went on はっきりと, "I believed this worst of you until about three minutes ago and by now, if I hadn't suddenly altered my opinion"—he smiled grimly—"you wouldn't have been what you are any more." He held her 注目する，もくろむs with his. "Do you know what saved you from both yourself and me? No, of course you don't, but I'll tell you."

He took out a cigarette and lighted it やめる leisurely. "I told you once that I am not married, and it is やめる true. But I was married once"—he shrugged his shoulders—"until my wife, やめる deservedly, 離婚d me. She was a good girl and had been all she should have been until her wedding night." He made a grimace. "Her mother was a shrewd woman and had left no chances for me lying about." He spoke gently. "井戸／弁護士席, when I took my wife upstairs in the hotel that night, as we entered the room I saw a nervous 脅すd look upon her 直面する." He raised one long forefinger in 強調. "She was 脅すd at what she knew was going to happen to her, as she had had no experience of it before."

He 解除するd up his 手渡す and spoke very slowly and emphatically. "And, to your good fortune, I saw that same 脅すd look on your 直面する just now when you had taken off your hat. You were 脅すd as she had been because you are what people call good, too." He nodded. "Yes, that look saved you"—he 屈服するd ironically—"and so I am going to leave you to make that last gift of yours one day to some decent man."

He sprang 突然の to his feet and pointed to her hat. "Put it on," he ordered はっきりと, "and get out quick, as I'm only human and may change my mind. Go on—get away quick! I've finished with you and never want to see you again. Go on! You can get home by yourself, and if you've no money on you to 支払う／賃金 the bus fare so much the better. You can walk, and you'll have plenty of time then to realise what a damned little fool you've been," and, almost 押し進めるing her out of the studio, he slammed the door viciously behind her.

With his 長，率いる bent 負かす／撃墜する, he listened to her 退却／保養地ing footsteps until they had died away, and then darted over to a cupboard and took out a 瓶／封じ込める of whisky. "A damned fool myself," he growled, "and I'll never get such a chance again." He sighed 深く，強烈に. "Still, I've done the 権利 thing for once, though I'm not sure I won't 悔いる it all my life."

And Dora? Dora was in the depths of a most bitter humiliation as she walked along. He had been 権利! He had seen through her! She had known やめる 井戸／弁護士席 what was going to happen and she had fallen for it like the veriest 淡褐色 of a little servant girl who had gone out for a walk in the dark for the first time with her lover!

She crimsoned up in shame. And he had almost called her by a bad 指名する and thrown her out as if she had not been 価値（がある） the taking! Oh, God, as he had said, what a little fool she had been! Yet—in his upbraiding her he had not plumbed to half the depths of her folly. Entangled with him, what would have become of her high 解決する to climb to a position where she could 会合，会う her father—when she 設立する him—on equal 条件?

She shed many 涙／ほころびs that night before sleep at last （機の）カム to her, but in her weeping there were no bitter thoughts for the man who had so reviled her. Bad he might be, but, for all that, he had saved her from herself, and she was 感謝する.

The next day she made up her mind that she would leave St. Jude's. She did not wholly 信用 herself if Eric Chalmers should try to get in touch with her again. 追加するd to that, she 手配中の，お尋ね者 now to mix with the class of people の中で whom she was sure her father was to be 設立する.

She told herself it would not be as difficult there as it might seem, for she would try to get her 事例／患者s from の中で the 患者s of the highest of the hospital 医療の staff.

Once having made up her mind, she 行為／法令／行動するd quickly and that same afternoon spoke to the matron. The latter was 同情的な. "Yes, Sister," she said, "I やめる understand. Of course, I shall be very sorry to lose you, but I won't try to dissuade you, for I know you'll make an ideal 私的な nurse and will get plenty to do." She looked thoughtful. "In fact I rather think I can put you on to something straightaway. Just wait a day or two and I'll speak to you again."

So it （機の）カム about that a few days later Dora was sent for to the matron's room. Rather to her 当惑, Sir Robert Griffin, the 上級の 内科医 of the hospital, was there. The matron was all smiles. "Sister," she said, "Sir Robert has a proposition to put to you, and I think it will please you." She laughed. "I know it would me if I were you."

"It's like this, Sister Dane," said the 広大な／多数の／重要な man pleasantly. "I want a nurse for my 協議するing-rooms"—he smiled his rare smile—"and from what I know of you, you are just the one I'd like to have. It's nice 利益／興味ing work and I would 支払う／賃金 you eight guineas a week. I must tell you, however, that the position would not be a 永久の one, as I should only want you for about six months. My 現在の nurse is going to have a serious 操作／手術 and afterwards will have to go away for at least a three months' holiday. Now does the proposition 控訴，上告 to you?"

Did it 控訴，上告 to Dora? Why, it was an 適切な時期, the magnificence of which almost took her breath away! Sir Robert …に出席するd 王族 and, as a 協議するing 内科医, everybody knew his practice lay の中で the wealthiest society people.

She stammered her thanks at his asking her and 受託するd at once.

So the に引き続いて week saw Dora starting upon her 義務s in Cavendish Square, and she was so thrilled with everything that the 負傷させる 原因（となる）d by her break with Eric Chalmers seemed to 傷をいやす／和解させる almost at once. It was an unpleasant adventure, she told herself, from which, however, most undeservedly, she had escaped very lightly.

CHAPTER V. — THE FIRST STEP ON THE LADDER

FOR the agreed six months Dora was in 出席 upon Sir Robert at his 協議するing-rooms, but there was no 疑問 she was disappointed with the result, as she had soon come to realise what a priceless little fool she had been to have ever imagined that it might bring her the 適切な時期, upon which she had 始める，決める her heart, of making a good marriage.

Certainly she was working の中で the very class she had 手配中の，お尋ね者 to, as hardly a day passed without her 存在 brought in 接触する with some of the best of 肩書を与えるd society people, many of whose 指名するs were so often について言及するd in the social columns of the newspapers. Still, they were nearly all either old or 年輩の and, apart from that, she met them only as Sir Robert's nurse, and, their 出席 at his 協議するing-room finished, her 協会 with them was over and done with.

It is true some of the men 患者s were やめる agreeable to 支払う／賃金ing her plenty of attention, bringing her flowers and boxes of chocolates and even on the 静かな 示唆するing they should 会合，会う her outside and take her out to dinner. The older they were, too, the more gallant some of these latter were inclined to be. Indeed, one old lord of an historic 指名する and 井戸／弁護士席 into the seventies, who was 存在 扱う／治療するd by Sir Robert for arthritis, was so insistent she should 会合，会う him one evening that she had to tell him off はっきりと, even at the 危険 of giving offence. That he was married to an old lady seemingly as 古代の as himself had not in any way damped his ardour, and Dora had had several grim laughs to herself at the thought of what people would think of her if they saw her in public with this tottery old gentleman as her cavalier.

In another way, too, she had 苦しむd a 広大な／多数の／重要な disillusionment, for it had come to her of late that the idea she would ever learn who was her father was altogether a fantastic one, and she grew hot in shame at the thought of what a silly, foolish girl she had been. Probably it had been a dream on her poor mother's part that her lover had been of the upper classes!

Of such humble birth as she knew her mother had been, and, with such scant education and no experience or knowledge of the world, no young girl could have been more easily 課すd upon than she. With a sigh of pity, she, Dora, could visualise it all so 明確に now. A young and pretty neglected wife, with the background of a most unhappy home—a boy out upon a holiday and eager as all young men always are for a love adventure—why, what would have been more natural than that the boy should have pitched her a tale, got all he 手配中の，お尋ね者 out of her and then faded 支援する into the millions and millions of young fellows like him.

Then another thing was beginning to worry Dora やめる a lot. She was 場内取引員／株価 time, or, worse than that, was 現実に losing ground in her endeavour to make a good marriage. At twenty-five the best years of her life were slipping 危険に by, and with every year that passed her chances would get いっそう少なく and いっそう少なく. Why should she not marry 井戸／弁護士席? she kept on asking herself. Countless other girls with より小数の advantages than hers had done it. She knew she had good looks and, in the main, that was what men most 手配中の，お尋ね者. She had 知能, too, and some knowledge of the world. Surely they should help her! Yes, it was just 適切な時期 she 手配中の，お尋ね者, and she must find that 適切な時期 somehow.

So things were up to the Monday of her last week at Cavendish Square, and then, arriving at the 協議するing-rooms as usual at half-past nine, the 長官 told her Sir Robert had been called into the country and, in consequence, would not be seeing 患者s until about one o'clock.

"He's gone to a place 近づく Tunbridge 井戸／弁護士席s," she said, "to a Mrs. Britton-Fox who's got chunks of money," and, having once spent a holiday not far from there, she went on to expatiate upon the grandeur of Marden 法廷，裁判所 where the 患者 lived.

Dora listened with some 利益／興味 to a description of the beautiful park, with its large ornamental lake, the herd of deer, the 広大な／多数の／重要な house with its more than forty rooms and the many pictures and art treasures it 含む／封じ込めるd. "It's a show place," the 長官 said, "and, when Mrs. Britton-Fox's husband was alive, 得点する／非難する／２０s of important people used to be entertained there."

That afternoon when Sir Robert had finished with his 患者s he called Dora 支援する into his 協議するing-room and to her 広大な／多数の／重要な delight 示唆するd that she could go 負かす／撃墜する to the 法廷，裁判所 to look after this Mrs. Britton-Fox.

"She's got a shocking heart," he said, "and though at the moment she is not 現実に ill, she's liable to become so any day. So I want someone with her who is 有能な of furnishing me with an 適する 報告（する）／憶測 twice a week. It may not be at all a hard 事例／患者 for you to look after, as she is not 存在 限定するd to her bed, but, for all that, you may find her difficult to manage, as I 特に want you to be very strict about her diet. You will receive your 現在の salary."

Dora was thrilled. It might turn out to be the very chance she had been looking for, a chance which after all had come to her without her looking for it! She would be の中で the best-class people and surely anything might come of it!

So at the end of the week she was driven with Sir Robert to Marden 法廷，裁判所, and on the way 負かす／撃墜する he told her chattily やめる a lot about her 患者-to-be.

The childless 未亡人 of Marcus Britton-Fox who had had large 商業の 利益／興味s in India, she was a proud and 豊富な old woman. During her husband's lifetime, and for a short time に引き続いて his death, she had been an important person in the society world, entertaining lavishly の中で the best society people.

Her chef had been an artist, her cellar one of the best in the kingdom, and money had been 注ぐd out like water to 供給する amusement for her guests. She had kept on in this way, too, for the first couple of years or so of her widowhood, and then had been brought up はっきりと by a bad heart attack.

"That was a little over a year ago," went on Sir Robert, "and then I made her 減少（する） all this senseless entertaining and 主張するd she should live the very quietest of lives. She didn't want to, but I 脅すd her into it, and now she has settled 負かす／撃墜する very ungraciously to a 半分-chronic invalidism. I understand she has shut up most of the rooms of the 法廷，裁判所 and keeps only a butler and four maids."

He laughed. "I'm afraid you won't find her a very good-tempered old lady, but, from what I've seen of you, if anyone can manage her you will."

Arriving at the 法廷，裁判所 and introduced to her 患者, Dora was rather surprised the latter showed little outward 調印する of 存在 in the 不安定な 条件 Sir Robert had 述べるd. She looked active and 十分な of life.

"So you're the very 有能な young woman," she 迎える／歓迎するd Dora frowningly, "who's going to make sure I don't do anything I want to? 井戸／弁護士席, you're much too pretty to be a nurse——" and she 追加するd spitefully, "you'll find no men here to use your charms upon, except Bevan, my butler, whom you've just seen. I don't have 訪問者s."

Dora's heart sank into her shoes. So she was going to 会合，会う no nice and 適格の young men, no knights in 向こうずねing armour and no fairy prince with a golden shoe for the poor lonely Cinderella! She had run into another blind alley!

However, she dissembled her 失望 with a 有望な smile, and when shown into her room by a smartly 制服を着た parlourmaid was to some extent mollified by the 迅速な realisation that if life were indeed going to be monotonous at the 法廷，裁判所, at any 率 there was going to be no 欠如（する） of creature 慰安s. Her room was spacious, a 有望な 解雇する／砲火／射撃 was 燃やすing in the grate, and all the 任命s were luxurious. Lights could be switched on wherever you 手配中の，お尋ね者 them, and there was a beautiful-looking little mantel wireless 始める，決める. 追加するd to all these there was a 私的な bathroom.

At the 昼食, too, which followed, it was evident that if the old glories of the 法廷，裁判所 had in the main 出発／死d, something of their splendour and 儀式 still ぐずぐず残るd. The food was the best one could have wished, there was the choice of several ワインs, and they were waited upon by two parlourmaids 同様に as the butler.

Mrs. Britton-Fox had 特に asked Dora not as yet to change into her uniform, and so Sir Robert, who stayed for the meal, for the first time saw Dora other than as a nursing sister or 協議するing-room attendant. She was a very beautiful young woman, he told himself, and he was 特に pleased to see she was neither shy nor ぎこちない in her surroundings. Later, in 説 good-bye to her, she was やめる thrilled he so far 出発／死d from his usual 厳しい professional manner as to give her 手渡す a gentle squeeze while he held it much longer than he need have done.

Dora very quickly settled 負かす／撃墜する to her 義務s and 設立する that for the time 存在 there was nothing onerous about them. Her 患者 was living an almost normal life, and all Dora had to do was to look after her 一般に, 記録，記録的な／記録する her pulse twice a day, see that she took her 薬／医学 and 抑制する her from eating more than she should or what was not 許すd.

Simple as were these 義務s, carrying them out conscientiously, however, speedily made her something of an enemy to her 患者. Never at any time of a 特に agreeable disposition, Mrs. Britton-Fox's 明言する／公表する of health had made her most bad-tempered, and in many ways she was now childishly spiteful. Accustomed all her life to having her own way, she hated to have to obey orders. So, standing in 広大な／多数の／重要な awe of Sir Robert and afraid to 感情を害する／違反する him, she began instead to visit her spite, as much as she dared, upon Dora.

She was rude and overbearing, too, to all her servants, and at first Dora could not understand how it was they had stayed so long with her. However, she was to learn later they were 存在 very 高度に paid, getting almost 二塁打 the 給料 they would have 得るd anywhere else and having everything they 手配中の，お尋ね者 in the way of 慰安.

It was very amusing to Dora to watch the behaviour of the butler when she was 乱用ing him for something he had done or not done. A 静かな and intelligent-looking man, he took not the slightest notice of anything she said, except to listen respectfully. Then he would leave her presence with the most deferential of 屈服するs.

Dora liked Bevan very much. He was always anxious to do anything he could for her in a 静かな and unobtrusive way, and she could sense his sympathy when things were 特に trying. Still, he had been too 井戸／弁護士席 trained to ever discuss his mistress with her in any way.

However, it was very different with Mrs. Humphreys, the cook, and from her Dora learnt やめる a lot about Mrs. Britton-Fox. She told her she had quarrelled with nearly all her relations and indeed behaved so offensively that only two of them now ever visited the 法廷，裁判所. These were her two 甥s, Ernest Wynwood, a 井戸／弁護士席-to-do stockbroker of middle age, and Richard Paris Stroud, a young fellow of six and twenty, who, when his uncle, the childless baronet Sir Warwick, died, would become Sir Richard Stroud.

"He is the mistress's favourite," said the cook, "and it's no secret he'll come into most of her money. She's always telling him he せねばならない marry some girl high up in society, too. She's very ambitious about him and wants him to bring 支援する the 広大な／多数の／重要な 評判 the 法廷，裁判所 once had."

Both of these 甥s, she went on, paid 時折の visits to the 法廷，裁判所, but never stayed very long, as their aunt was always nagging at them, Mr. Wynwood because he had married a woman she didn't like, and Mr. Stroud because he had not married at all.

"Is this Mr. Stroud 井戸／弁護士席 off?" asked Dora a little curiously.

"Oh, no! Both his parents are dead and they left him no money. He 作品 with some big 化学製品 会社／堅い, but Mistress makes him an allowance and he has a small flat in Earl's 法廷，裁判所 and runs a little car. He's such a nice gentleman and so polite to everyone."

"But he'll have money, won't he," asked Dora, "when he comes into the baronetcy?"

The cook shook her 長，率いる. "No, there's not a penny there. Sir Warwick has just his 年金 from the Army and it'll die with him. He lives in an 安価な hotel in Harrogate."

"But why doesn't Mr. Stroud marry?" asked Dora, her curiosity now beginning to be stirred more 堅固に.

"He says he's not 利益／興味d in young ladies," smiled the cook, "and never has anything to do with them."

Dora was a little thoughtful after what the cook had told her. Notwithstanding her comfortable surroundings, she had been wanting 不正に to throw up the 事例／患者, and had only been 妨げるd from doing so because she did not want to displease Sir Robert.

Now she felt rather more 性質の／したい気がして to stay on for at least a little longer. It would be 利益／興味ing to see what this young man who had no 利益／興味 in girls was like, and rather amusing, too, to try to lead him on. Certainly she had not the 信用／信任 in her 力／強力にするs that an old 選挙運動者 would have had, but her years of hospital life had taught her that no man, unless he were 肉体的に wanting and deformed in some way, could ever be 現実に dead to the attractions of the opposite sex. The 勧める must be there and it was only lying 活動停止中の for some particular woman to awaken it.

A few days after this conversation, the stockbroker 甥 （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する for a long week-end, and Dora was not too much taken with him. He was a big, red-直面するd, smiling man of 解放する／自由な and 平易な manners. He ogled her やめる a lot and evidently 手配中の，お尋ね者 to get very friendly all at once. Happening to be alone in the lounge, he started to put his arm 一連の会議、交渉／完成する her waist. She 押し進めるd him away はっきりと, but he did not take the 無視する，冷たく断わる and a moment or two later chucked her under the chin. By now she was really angry and gave him so hard a box on the ear that his 注目する，もくろむs watered. "You little she-cat," he snarled; "it'd serve you 権利 if I gave you one 支援する."

He left her alone after that and took no more notice of her. She was relieved when he had gone.

Then, to her delight, only about a fortnight later, Mrs. Britton-Fox 発表するd that the other 甥 would be coming 負かす／撃墜する on the Saturday and would be staying at the 法廷，裁判所 for all the に引き続いて week.

"But you needn't plume yourself up," and she went on with something of a sneer, "and think you're going to make a 罰金 catch, for if you do you'll only have all your trouble for nothing. It happens our sex has never 利益／興味d him." She looked very scornful. "Besides, if he ever does marry it'll be someone in his own class."

Dora looked amused. "井戸／弁護士席, I'm certainly not likely to lose any sleep over him," she said smiling, "as his sex no more 利益／興味s me than you say ours does him," but then, knowing by now how shrewd the old lady was, she 追加するd quickly, "At least, men 利益／興味 me so little that I never 推定する／予想する to 会合，会う the one who will make me want to give up my independence for him."

"Then you're a 冷淡な woman, are you?" queried Mrs. Britton-Fox, regarding Dora's 有望な and piquant 直面する very doubtfully.

"I suppose so," fibbed Dora, "as men never trouble me."

Young Richard Stroud arrived on the Saturday morning, and Dora's heart gave something of a bump as she was introduced to him. He was of the very type that she knew 控訴，上告d to her most. Tall and undeniably handsome, with a 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な and thoughtful 直面する, he smiled pleasantly as they shook 手渡すs.

"You needn't be afraid of her, Richard," said his aunt disdainfully, "as she tells me men never 利益／興味 her."

"Very sensible!" nodded her 甥. "We men are always a 原因（となる） of trouble, and are never 価値（がある） it."

Sitting opposite to him at lunch, Dora proceeded to take good 在庫／株 of him at her leisure and, as he seldom looked in her direction, had plenty of 適切な時期s. "In every way a gentleman," ran her thoughts, "and he'd never do anything mean. Very conscientious and a dreamer. No girl has wakened him up as yet."

During the course of the meal the old lady took 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of the conversation and purposely never once brought Dora into it. However, the talk was 明らかに not very 利益／興味ing to her 甥, as he looked 明白に bored, though politely, Dora saw, he did his best not to show it.

"He didn't seem very taken with you, Sister, did he?" 発言／述べるd her 雇用者 spitefully to Dora, when later they were alone. She laughed unpleasantly. "You 港／避難所't made much impression yet."

"No, because you didn't give me any chance," returned Dora in mock reproach. "You never once gave me the chance of speaking to him."

"Oh, then you think it is only 適切な時期 you want," said Mrs. Britton-Fox with a contemptuous look. "Very 井戸／弁護士席, then, I'll give you plenty"—she sneered—"and when he's 提案するd to you I'll help you choose the （犯罪の）一味."

So that afternoon when they had finished tea in the lounge, with a sweetness and consideration that was やめる foreign to her nature, his aunt 示唆するd to Richard that he should take Dora for a little walk in the grounds. "She doesn't get enough fresh 空気／公表する," she said, and やめる ignoring Dora's perfectly healthy 外見, 追加するd, "She wants more roses in her cheeks."

"Delighted!" exclaimed Richard with a smiling inclination of his 長，率いる に向かって Dora.

"And you be sure, Sister," went on Mrs. Britton-Fox with pretended 活気／アニメーション, "that you show Mr. Stroud my Gloires de Dijon in the rose garden." She gave Dora an impish look. "You'll be out of sight, too, of the windows of the house there."

Dora at once became furiously red, but Richard, with a ready sympathy in her so-obvious 当惑, touched her in a friendly way on the arm. "Come on, Sister," he said briskly, "we'll go and see if these roses are really 価値（がある） looking at."

With still 高くする，増すd colour, Dora followed him into the grounds, and then he looked 負かす／撃墜する at her and said with a smile, "I suppose my aunt was ーするつもりであるing to be facetious."

"不快な／攻撃 would be a better word," snapped Dora 怒って, "but she's often spiteful に向かって me like that. I have to see she obeys her doctor's orders, and she detests me in consequence."

"But it was only her fun," said Richard. "She didn't mean anything."

"Oh, didn't she?" retorted Dora scornfully. "She did 権利 enough. She ーするつもりであるd to make me uncomfortable by sort of 警告 you to be on your guard when you were alone with me."

Richard laughed merrily. "But strangers might think it was the other way 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, with you 存在 in any danger there was—not me."

"You," queried Dora with some amusement in spite of her 怒り／怒る, "with your 評判 of a woman-hater?"

"My dear aunt again, I suppose," frowned Richard. "No, I'm nothing so foolish as that. It's only that Aunt is always wanting to 押し進める me into matrimony and I'm not that way inclined. I've never had much to do with girls and they don't enter into my life at 現在の. I work in the 研究室／実験室 of a metallurgical 化学者／薬剤師 and there are no women there."

The unpleasantness of Mrs. Britton-Fox forgotten, they talked friendlily together, principally about music, and Dora 設立する him an agreeable companion. Every time she looked at him she thought how handsome he was. He was so boyish and frank, too, about his life, though he said nothing about 存在 相続人 to a 肩書を与える.

Their walk almost over and passing through the rose-garden again, Dora suddenly got a 飛行機で行く in her 注目する，もくろむ. Blinking ineffectively to dislodge it, the water began to trickle 負かす／撃墜する her cheek.

"Here, let me see what I can do," said Richard briskly and, 受託するing his attention, Dora felt herself get hot as, 安定したing her 長，率いる with one 手渡す under her chin, he 解除するd up her eyelid by the long 攻撃するs and tried to 位置を示す the 感情を害する／違反するing insect.

Certainly it was a rather embarrassing moment for both of them and 特に so to Richard, for as far as he could remember his 直面する had never been so の近くに to that of a woman before. Still, as he 公式文書，認めるd the softness of her 肌 and smelt the fragrance of her hair, he 設立する the experience was not by any means an unpleasant one. He could feel his own 直面する had got rather hot, too.

"I see it," he said after a few moments. "Let's have your handkerchief now," and after she had moistened it, between what he noticed for the first time were a very pretty pair of lips, the 飛行機で行く was quickly 除去するd.

She thanked him gratefully, and then, as they 再開するd their walk, a silence fell between them and continued until they were 支援する in the house. Dora was thrilling with the memory of his の近くに 接触する with her, and he, rather to his annoyance, was not undisturbed, either. He had not given much notice to her 外見 when his aunt had introduced her, but now that he had realised how really good-looking she was, his thoughts were directed into a most unusual channel and he was surprised at himself.

Dora was much relieved they did not 会合，会う Mrs. Britton-Fox as they were going through the lounge, but in the privacy of her own room she felt her 脚s wobbling under her.

Here was the very man, she breathed, she had been hoping would one day come into her life, of a charming disposition, good-looking, likely to be 井戸／弁護士席-off in the 未来 and the possessor of a 肩書を与える. With all her ambitions, it was to her credit that she put his personal 資格s first.

The three of them met again at dinner, and Mrs. Britton-Fox was maliciously pleased to see that Dora was so 静かな and subdued. She 公式文書，認めるd, too, that Richard during the whole course of the meal hardly once seemed to ちらりと見ること Dora's way.

"Poof, of course the walk was not 利益／興味ing to him," she told herself viciously, "and the girl's disappointed in consequence! With all his politeness, he's as 冷淡な as ice with girls, and when he does marry he'll choose with his 長，率いる and not be led away by any sentimental nonsense." She frowned with just a trace of uneasiness. "Still, the girl looks very pretty to-night."

Richard thought so, too, and that was why he 避けるd as much as he could looking in her direction. However, he had 井戸／弁護士席 taken in her 外見 in one quick ちらりと見ること as they had sat 負かす／撃墜する to the meal, and it had been even more 乱すing than the first 発覚 in the rose-garden.

Her 直面する was so delicately 紅潮／摘発するd, her 注目する，もくろむs were as pretty as any he'd ever seen, she had a beautifully 形態／調整d mouth, and her uniform could not have shown up to more advantage her perfect little 人物／姿／数字.

He had another 推論する／理由, too, for purposely taking such little open notice of Dora. やめる aware of his aunt's disposition, he knew any attention he paid to her nurse would make his 親族 more spitefully inclined than ever. Still, 恐れるing that Dora, after their pleasant conversation that afternoon, might feel a little 傷つける by his 明らかな neglect, once, when Mrs. Britton-Fox was 占領するd in giving an order to the butler, he managed to flash across the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する a smile of faint amusement.

Dora lowered her 注目する，もくろむs quickly to hide the exultation that was 殺到するing through her. So already there had come between them a secret understanding of which his aunt was to know nothing, and surely it might be the beginning of an intimacy that could lead them anywhere!

Then in the 続いて起こるing week which followed was 制定するd as 利益／興味ing a little comedy as would have delighted the most 常習的な playgoer.

First, there was the woman, Dora, who, with no pretence to herself that she had suddenly fallen 長，率いる over heels in love with Richard, was yet by no means unstirred by his physical attractions. In other ways, too, she was intensely 利益／興味d in him, regarding him as 所有するing 事実上 all the 資格s she so 願望（する）d in a husband. 追加するd to that, as was only natural, she would have been 大いに pleased to bring home to the spiteful Mrs. Britton-Fox how mistaken she had been in her sneering 声明 that she, Dora, would never 後継する in making Richard 利益／興味d in her.

So, to 達成する her ends, she was now using every wile and artifice with which her sex had been endowed. She was playing her cards 井戸／弁護士席, too, 存在 in no way 今後 or bold, but letting Richard see in many little ways that she was not wholly indifferent to him.

Next there was Richard, a man for the first time 利益／興味d in one of the opposite sex, and with that 利益／興味 coming so long after his adolescent days it was 殺到するing through him with a 暴力／激しさ he would certainly not have felt had he had any such experience before. He would have liked to have feasted his 注目する，もくろむs upon Dora whenever she was by, to 公式文書，認める how her 直面する lit up and her 注目する，もくろむs sparkled when she was amused, and to watch the play of her pretty lips as she spoke. The peculiar thing was that, though he knew he was 落ちるing in love with her, he yet fought feebly against it, because it had always been a proud obsession with him that he would never 落ちる for any girl, however pretty she might be.

In two minds, he did not know whether he was awakening from some unsatisfying and unnatural sleep or else—沈むing into a delicious and opiate dream. He felt something like a man who all his adult life had been walking between two high and forbidding 塀で囲むs, and now the 塀で囲むs had suddenly fallen 負かす／撃墜する, and before his startled and wondering 注目する，もくろむs was stretching a pathway 主要な into a garden of 有望な and lovely flowers.

Then there was Mrs. Britton-Fox, watchful, very watchful, but for a while やめる unsuspicious. Notwithstanding that Dora made out to her she was not 利益／興味d in men, an instinct had told the old lady that the pretty Sister would not be averse from receiving any attentions Richard might care to give. However, her very malice made her やめる 確信して he would never give them. She was sure he was 免疫の to the attractions of the most pretty girls, and so Dora would get nothing but 失望 for her 苦痛s! It would serve her 権利 and be a good 罰 for her!

Still, に向かって the end of Richard's ーするつもりであるd stay at the 法廷，裁判所 something of a 乱すing thought began to come 徐々に into her mind. She had caught a few of his stolen ちらりと見ることs at Dora, and several times had noticed him looking hard at her undoubtedly very pretty 手渡すs.

So on the Friday—Richard was leaving on the Sunday night—she kept Dora hanging about her all day, that there might be no 適切な時期 for her to have the now customary walk with him. In the evening, too, just before dinner and before Dora had come 負かす／撃墜する and she and her 甥 were alone in the lounge, she said はっきりと, "I hope you are not putting ideas in that girl's 長，率いる, Richard, by 支払う／賃金ing her too much attention?" and, giving him no time to reply to her question, she 追加するd rather viciously, "I think now it was a mistake my 示唆するing you taking her for that daily walk. I believe it has encouraged her to think she has made some 前進 in 主要な you on."

Richard had just been in the 行為／法令／行動する of lighting a cigarette when she put her question, and 明らかに it was 製図／抽選 不正に as it was a few seconds before he replied. "Is it my habit, my dear Aunt," he asked, looking very amused, "to 支払う／賃金 any young woman any undue attention? Have you ever known me to do it?"

"No, I 港／避難所't," she snapped, "but I've noticed you've been looking a good lot at this girl lately."

He nodded. "She's rather pretty," he said lightly, "and I like pretty things. No 害（を与える） in that, is there?"

"Not if you stop at just looking," agreed his aunt with a frown, "but if ever"—her 発言する／表明する 常習的な viciously—"you had anything more to do with her than that, then it would be good-bye to all my 利益／興味 in you and you'd never get another penny from me, alive or dead."

"Then you don't like her?" he queried as if rather surprised.

"Oh, I suppose she's all 権利 as a nurse," was the grudging reply, "but she's too masterful, just like all women of her ありふれた class who're given a little 当局. They always 乱用 it."

"井戸／弁護士席, don't you worry about me, Aunt," laughed Richard. "I 港／避難所't got to nearly twenty-seven without learning how to take care of myself."

So his aunt appeared 満足させるd. She would have been aghast, however, had she but known 正確に／まさに what was passing in his mind. He would have liked to have slapped her for her malice, for if there was one thing no one would have ever said about Dora it would have been that she was ありふれた. Everything about her spoke of 産む／飼育するing, and both in looks and manners she was a perfect little aristocrat. So it followed that his aunt's disparagement of her made Dora the more and more to fill his thoughts.

The 最高潮 （機の）カム the に引き続いて evening, on the Saturday, the day before he was ーするつもりであるing to leave the 法廷，裁判所.

It was just before dinner and, happening to go into the library, he saw Dora upon a ladder there putting 支援する a 調書をとる／予約する on one of the high 棚上げにするs. When she started to come 負かす／撃墜する he noticed the ladder was shaking, and so he 安定したd it with his 手渡すs. Then when Dora was half-way 負かす／撃墜する he said jokingly, "Jump, I'll catch you," and as she turned 一連の会議、交渉／完成する he held out his 武器.

Smiling a little nervously, she hesitated just a few seconds and then jumped. It was a very small jump and there was certainly no occasion for it, but it had flashed through her like 雷 how thrilling it would be to find herself in his 武器.

He caught her, and with her 手渡すs upon his shoulders, their 注目する，もくろむs held each other's. Hers were sparkling, and her 直面する, he thought, could not have been more divinely 紅潮／摘発するd. His heart was （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing painfully. "You little beauty," he exclaimed hoarsely and, pulling her to him, his lips were 圧力（をかける）d ardently upon hers. To his delight, Dora kissed him 支援する. Certainly it was a 広大な／多数の／重要な thrill for them both, and, though their 相互の rapture had lasted for a very short time, its intensity had left them weak and trembling.

"Dora, my darling——" he began, but Mrs. Britton-Fox's 発言する／表明する was heard in the 回廊（地帯） and they sprang guiltily apart.

Fortunately, for neither of them at that moment could have 直面するd her without showing most obvious 調印するs of 当惑, she passed by the library door which was not shut but only ajar. However, they could still hear her 発言する／表明する in the distance, and with an arch and roguish smile Dora blew Richard a kiss and, tiptoeing out of the room, hurried away.

At the meal which followed a few minutes afterwards, the mistress of the 法廷，裁判所 became suddenly 怪しげな again. Not only was Dora, with her sparkling 注目する，もくろむs and 紅潮／摘発するd cheeks, looking prettier than she had ever seen her before, but Richard also looked 極端に happy and pleased with himself. There was the same atmosphere of content about them both.

She 注目する，もくろむd them 辛うじて, and her 疑惑s grew. Richard was bringing in the girl much more often into the conversation than it was usual for him to do, and she seemed more 確信して in herself and altogether いっそう少なく demure.

"The little minx!" thought the old lady viciously. "She's losing her place and getting more familiar. I was a fool to throw them together. Richard's 女性 than I thought. He's become 利益／興味d in her. I'm glad he's leaving to-morrow, and I'll see she's not here when he comes again. I'll tell Sir Robert she doesn't 控訴 me and I don't need a nurse any more."

To give Dora no chance of 存在 alone with Richard that evening, upon one pretext or another she kept her by her the whole time, and it was nearly half-past eleven, much later than was usual, before they both got ready for bed.

Because of the 条件 of her heart, Mrs. Britton-Fox's bedroom was on the ground 床に打ち倒す. Once having been the music-room, it had been made into a bedroom so that she should have no stairs to climb. Dora's room, also on the ground 床に打ち倒す, was in the same 回廊（地帯）, but separated by two other rooms from that of her 患者. However, there was a bell operating between the two rooms so that Dora could be 召喚するd at any moment if she were needed.

Though it was still August, the evening had turned out chilly and there was a 有望な 解雇する／砲火／射撃 燃やすing in Dora's room. She sat looking into the 炎上s and her thoughts were not unpleasant ones.

So one part of her day-dreaming looked like coming true! She was sure Richard would ask her to marry him, for kissing with him would mean far more than any casual flirtation. He took life 本気で and was in every way an honourable and conscientious man—too honourable and conscientious in fact, as he might want to go straight to his aunt and tell her everything, with perhaps an open quarrel 続いて起こるing.

No, the old lady must be kept やめる in the dark! One thing, she was not likely to live very long, and who would be sorry when she was gone? She was an unpleasant and unlovable old woman!

Her meditations were interrupted by a gentle （電話線からの）盗聴 Upon the door and her heart leapt into her mouth at the thought that it could only be Richard. She opened the door very gently and, as she had 推定する／予想するd, it was he who tiptoed into the room. Delight and びっくり仰天 were mingled in the look with which she regarded him.

He looked uneasy, too, and put his finger upon his lips to impress upon her—if indeed that were necessary—to be as 静かな as possible.

He realised やめる 井戸／弁護士席 how unwise, if not wholly wrong, it was of him to come to her bedroom at that time of night, but 構内／化合物d with his 良心 by telling himself there was no help for it. His aunt, no 疑問 deliberately, had made it impossible for him to get a word alone with her all the evening, and leaving the 法廷，裁判所 as he was the next afternoon he knew there would be little chance of speaking to her before he went away.

Yet, he had told himself, he must see her. After what had happened in the library earlier in the evening he could not かもしれない let 事柄s 残り／休憩（する） where they were. He must tell her his kisses meant that he loved her and 手配中の，お尋ね者 her to be his wife. Then they must consider, too, how they should tell his aunt. All his life a dreamer, and 深く，強烈に in love as he now was, the 可能性 of losing his 相続物件 seemed a small thing in comparison with his 所有／入手 of Dora.

In the 合間 Mrs. Britton-Fox had been much too restless to 減少（する） off to sleep. She was 確かな Dora had been trying to lead her 甥 on and, from both their demeanours at dinner, was 大いに afraid not without some success. She wondered uneasily what they both were doing now.

Very soon her 疑惑s as to 正確に／まさに what might now be going on making it impossible for her to compose her mind for sleep, she slipped out of bed, and, putting on her dressing-gown and slippers, opened the door very 静かに. The long 回廊（地帯） was not in 完全にする 不明瞭, as faint moonlight was coming through a window at the far end and she could just distinguish where the door of Dora's bedroom was.

Not a sound was to be heard anywhere, and it seemed to her that everyone but herself in the 法廷，裁判所 was now 急速な／放蕩な asleep. For a few moments she stood hesitating and then, as her feet were feeling 冷淡な, was about to 身を引く 支援する into her own room when she saw a 影をつくる／尾行する detach itself from the 不明瞭 and heard the unmistakable sound of someone （電話線からの）盗聴 very gently—it could only be—on Dora's door.

持つ／拘留するing her breath in amazement, she waited for what would happen next. A (n)艦隊／(a)素早いing 軸 of light fell across the 回廊（地帯） as the door was opened, just long enough, however, before it was very softly の近くにd again, to give a glimpse of a 人物／姿／数字, which even at that distance she recognised as that of her 甥, slipping into the room.

Fury and delight struggled for the mastery in her 直面する; fury at the deceit of her 甥, and delight that she had caught out the so hated Dora.

She crept 負かす／撃墜する the 回廊（地帯） and for a long moment stood listening at Dora's door. A light showed from the 割れ目 underneath, but not a sound （機の）カム from inside the room.

Slowly and very softly she turned the 扱う of the door and to her amazement, as she had 推定する／予想するd to find it locked, the door opened. She flung it wide to see her 甥 and Dora standing motionless in the middle of the room, she with her 長，率いる upon his shoulder and he with his 直面する bent 負かす／撃墜する low over hers.

"Oh, you slut!" she shouted at the very 最高の，を越す of her 発言する／表明する. "Just as I 推定する／予想するd; you're no better than a woman of the streets. Oh, you——"

"Aunt, Aunt, please don't!" cried Richard, 回復するing 即時に from the shock of her 外見. "We were doing nothing wrong, and Sister Dane has 同意d to be my wife."

"同意d to be your wife!" shrieked his aunt. "Oh, you young fool, she's been jumping at you all the time you've been here, throwing herself at your 長，率いる for my money she thought you were going to have!" She almost stuttered in her 激怒（する）. "But you won't get another penny from me now, alive or dead! Not another penny!" She shouted louder than ever. "Do you hear what I say?"

"I hear," replied Richard calmly, "and I don't want it, I can——"

"Liar 同様に as fool," shouted his aunt. "You'll be a pauper on the few shillings you earn a week and this woman here will turn on you and sell herself to somebody else. I tell you she's nothing but a——"

"Stop it, Aunt," ordered Richard 厳しく. "I won't hear another word from you, and——"

"You won't get any more 適切な時期s," she snarled, suddenly 静めるing 負かす／撃墜する, "for you'll be out of this house in ten minutes, you"—she put all the mockery she could in her 発言する／表明する—"and the young lady who has so obligingly"—she mimicked—"同意d to be your wife."

She stepped 支援する into the passage and shouted, "Bevan, Bevan, come here at once. I want you 即時に."

The butler was not far away. As with everyone else in the house who was already asleep, he had been awakened by his mistress's shouting. Now he （機の）カム running up with jacket and trousers over his pyjamas.

"Bevan," she said, speaking jerkily and in sharp gasps, "run out Mr. Richard's car, please. He's leaving at once, and Sister is going with him," and, as if she had now finished with the whole 事柄, she turned up the 回廊（地帯） to her own room, and with the door ajar, stood listening there.

A couple or so of minutes had passed when she heard Richard come out of Dora's room and walk away in the other direction. Evidently he was going to his own room to get his things together with no 延期する! With a spiteful smile she walked 静かに up to the door of Dora's room, and flinging it wide open once again, ordered her はっきりと to take nothing with her which was not her own.

Dora's only answer was to bang the door in her 直面する and lock it.

Within a ４半期/4分の1 of an hour at most Richard and Dora were passing through the lounge to the hall door, with Bevan behind them carrying the latter's two 控訴-事例／患者s. Mrs. Britton-Fox was waiting there to see the last of them.

"Good-bye, Aunt," said Richard smilingly, "and thank you so much for all you have done for me," but "You blackguard!" was all the answer he got from her.

Not to be outdone in politeness, Dora said sweetly, "Good-bye, Mrs. Britton-Fox, and you go off to bed at once, or you'll be a perfect 難破させる in the morning," but the answer was a vile word which made Richard scowl.

Then as they were 運動ing out of the grounds, Dora said chokingly, "Oh, Richard, dear, I'm so sorry I've brought all this upon you."

"But you didn't bring it on me, sweetheart," he replied. "I brought it on myself. It was stupid of me to come to your room, but I didn't realise it at the time."

"And it will cost you a fortune!" choked Dora.

He laughed lightly. "I don't mind if you don't. Don't worry, I'll soon make another one, or, at any 率, enough so that we can live happily together. I needed something like this to shake me up. I've been far too much of a dreamer and never 取り組むd things 真面目に." He squeezed her 手渡す tightly. "To-night I'm the happiest man in all the world!"

Dora was touched by his words. Here was one who had just lost a fortune regarding his loss as nothing in the light of his 所有／入手 of her. She nestled up の近くに to him.

"Where are we going now?" asked Dora.

"Why, to my flat, of course," said Richard. "I can't 減少（する） an unattended young lady at a hotel at this time of night"—he ちらりと見ることd at the watch upon his wrist—"getting on for one o'clock in the morning."

"But——" began Dora. However, she did not finish what she was going to say and was glad the 不明瞭 hid the blushes in her cheeks.

Then it was as if Richard had read her thoughts, for he went on laughingly, "Don't you be afraid, sweetheart, for there are two bedrooms in my little flat, and you'll be やめる all 権利."

When at length they reached the big building in which was 据えるd Richard's flat, though it was now past two o'clock, there were several cars parked outside. When Richard had garaged his own, upon entering the building they ran into a noisy party of men just coming out, and, to their 激しい vexation, saw that Richard's cousin was の中で them. The stockbroker's 注目する，もくろむs fell upon Richard at once. "Hullo," he called out with アル中患者 joviality, "you're a late bird, aren't you? Come, come, I never thought that of an old sobersides like you!" and then, taking in who Richard's companion was, he whistled in 広大な／多数の／重要な surprise.

"What!" he exclaimed, his 直面する now one big grin, "the pretty little Sister from the 法廷，裁判所. 井戸／弁護士席, I'm damned," and he was most annoyed when Richard shook him off はっきりと and started to go up the stairs.

"Unfortunate, 会合 him of all people," frowned Richard, "for now, of course, he'll 負かす／撃墜する to my aunt straight away to find out what it means." His frown changed into a beaming smile. "Still it doesn't 事柄, darling, does it? Nothing 事柄s now we're going to be married on Monday."

Then followed some very embarrassing moments for them both. Richard was palpably nervous, as, now alone with Dora in the middle of the night, the 誘惑 was very strong to start caressing her again, with the result which he felt 確かな would follow. However, with no experience at all of the other sex until Dora had swept like a トルネード，竜巻 into his life, he did not know how she would take it and was terribly afraid of doing something for which she would be reproaching him all his life.

Dora's ideas, however, of their position were わずかに different. A healthy, normal young woman with the experience of the attentions of many men in her life, the sex 勧める had often been stirred in her, with the result that, 大いに 利益／興味d in Richard as she now was, her warmest emotions were 危険に 近づく the surface. She made no secret of it, either, to herself, and knew she would be as wax in his 手渡すs, whatever he wished.

So in a way she was disappointed when, while 準備するing to go to their different rooms, he hardly looked at her, and a quick and hurried kiss was all he gave her as they said good night. Indeed, he almost 押し進めるd her into the room she was going to 占領する and の近くにd the door at once.

"Dear boy," she sighed wistfully, as she began to undress, "it'll be better to have a man like him for a husband than one who'll take every 適切な時期 he can get. At any 率 I shall know that he'll be faithful to me."

As she had 推定する／予想するd, it was a long time before sleep would come to her, but, as she lay 星／主役にするing wide-注目する，もくろむd into the 不明瞭, her thoughts were happy ones.

自然に, with her ambitious longings, she was disappointed she would not be marrying the 豊富な man she had been 計画／陰謀ing for. To her credit, however, she 裁判官d that to be a small 事柄 compared with her having won the 肉親，親類d of man she had, and, against the loss of his aunt's money, she consoled herself that she would at any 率 be marrying into a 見込みのある 肩書を与える.

When at length she fell asleep, her sleep was a 深い and dreamless one, to be broken only when Richard （機の）カム into the room fully dressed and carrying a cup of tea.

"Nine o'clock, sweetheart," he laughed, "and you've had a good refreshing sleep." He bent 負かす／撃墜する and gave her a not overlong but very tender kiss. "I 投票（する） we 運動 負かす／撃墜する to Eastbourne for lunch and then come 支援する to town for a nice little dinner somewhere." He tickled her under the chin. "To-morrow, Dora, Lady Stroud-to-be, we will 開始する our honeymoon," and these words made （疑いを）晴らす to her 正確に／まさに on what lines their pre-nuptial 行為／行う was going to be.

They had a happy day at the seaside, an excellent dinner at a good restaurant, where they 株d only a small 瓶／封じ込める of ワイン between them. They ぐずぐず残るd until やめる late over the meal and then followed a hurried and almost furtive retiring to their 各々の rooms 直接／まっすぐに they got 支援する to the flat.

The next day they were married by special licence, and when later as man and wife they were clasped in each other's 武器 certainly neither of them could in any way have complained of the other's coldness. Eros, the god of all lovers, gave them his blessing and they were in the seventh heaven of happiness.

So entered Dora Laura Stroud into her wedded life.

CHAPTER VI. — THE TURN OF THE WHEEL

HAVING seen her 甥 and Dora off the 前提s so late upon that eventful Saturday night, Mrs. Britton-Fox tottered to her bed, with very little sleep coming to her before the morning. Then, as Dora had 警告するd her, she felt a dreadful 難破させる.

However, her very vindictiveness seemed to give her strength, and before eight o'clock Bevan was （犯罪の）一味ing up Mr. Litchfield, her London solicitor, at his 私的な house in Belsize Park, to 教える him to come 負かす／撃墜する at once to Marden 法廷，裁判所 and draw up a new will for its mistress. To her 激しい 失望, she learnt he was away for the week-end and would not be 支援する until the Tuesday.

Still, 決定するd to vent her spite upon Richard and make 確かな he should get 非，不，無 of her money, as によれば her 現在の will he would if she were to die suddenly, propped up with pillows in her bed, she proceeded to draw up a new one upon a sheet of the 法廷，裁判所 notepaper.

It was only a few words, as a feeling of horrible 証拠不十分 警告するd her she would not be able to 令状 much, but for all that her malice made it longer than it need have been 単に to 表明する her wishes.

ーするつもりであるing to be as 侮辱ing as possible she wrote:

To my imbecile 甥 Richard Paris Stroud, because to my 激しい displeasure he has shown himself so depraved as to 約束 marriage to the woman known as Sister Dora Dane, I leave the sum of one shilling only, this money to help に向かって the education of his first child, whom by now is most probably 井戸／弁護士席 upon the way. All else, personal and real, I bequeath to my other 甥 Ernest Charles Wynwood.

召喚するing Bevan and Mrs. Humphreys, the cook, to 行為／法令／行動する as 証言，証人／目撃するs, the will was 調印するd, enclosed in an envelope, and sent off to her solicitor, Bevan taking it into the 長，率いる 地位，任命する office to get the letter 登録（する）d.

With what she considered her 義務 done, she sank 支援する exhausted upon the pillows, going so dreadful a colour that the 脅すd cook at once rang up the 地元の doctor, Dr. 支持を得ようと努めるd, before Bevan had been gone even ten minutes from the house.

The doctor did not at all like the look of her either and, 治めるing a strong restorative, at once had a nurse sent in to look after her. During the day her 条件 seemed to 改善する a little, with the 改良 continuing on the Monday. She would have liked to have sent for Sir Robert Griffin, but knew from what Dora had told her that he was away on holiday.

Then, very 早期に upon the Tuesday morning, when 試みる／企てるing to sit up in bed, she went off into a dead faint, and without 回復するing consciousness passed away within the hour.

Bevan at once rang up Richard, the latter learning the news as he and Dora were just about to sit 負かす／撃墜する to breakfast. "And I think, sir, you せねばならない know," went on the butler very solemnly, "that on the Sunday morning she made another will and, from what she told us, has left you out of it. The will was 地位，任命するd at once to Mr. Litchfield, so he will be in 所有／入手 of it now."

自然に feeling most upset, Richard told Dora what had happened and what Bevan had said about the new will, 存在 大いに heartened, however, at the 静める and unruffled way in which she received the news.

"But this new will was only what we 推定する／予想するd, darling, isn't it?" she said. "So it's no 失望," and she was so 有望な and undisturbed that the 絶対の realisation now that nothing would be coming to him from his aunt's 広い地所 lost a lot of its sting for Richard.

Dora was certainly a good actress, and though for her husband's sake might indeed have appeared to be in no way upset by learning that his aunt's money was now definitely lost and by such a 狭くする 利ざや of time, too, for all that she could have burst into 涙／ほころびs when once out of his sight.

Oh, if the horrid woman had only died a few hours earlier—what a difference it would have made to them! Better off than in her wildest dreams she had ever hoped to be, all the world would then have been at her feet! Now—but she choked 支援する her 涙／ほころびs, remembering she could not have won a better husband. Whatever happened, she was 決定するd to make him happy and, after all, with their health, and their affection for each other, surely they would have many joys to come in their lives.

Later that same morning Mr. Litchfield rang Richard up asking him to call 一連の会議、交渉／完成する at his 議会s as soon as he could. Upon Richard duly 現在のing himself, with some 不本意, the solicitor showed him the notepaper will.

"Very different from the last one I 持つ／拘留する," he sighed, "in which nearly everything was left to you. A 汚い, spiteful will, but one which there is no 疑問 will 持つ／拘留する good in 法律," and he went on to ask what had so suddenly changed Mrs. Britton-Fox's 意向s.

He listened sympathetically to the story. "A bad-tempered woman," he commented, "but then she always has been a bit queer that way." He hesitated a moment and continued, "I saw your cousin a few minutes ago and put out the suggestion that, under the circumstances, he should give something to you. He didn't 絶対 辞退する, but said he would do nothing unless you approached him yourself."

Richard shook his 長，率いる. "Not I! We've never been friends, おもに perhaps because he knew my aunt favoured me." He frowned. "Besides, when he went up to the 法廷，裁判所 a few weeks ago my wife slapped his 直面する for him. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to get too fresh. No, I'd never ask him for a farthing."

So Richard and Dora reconciled themselves to 推定する／予想する nothing, and accordingly were very surprised when one evening about a week later Charlie Jackson, a young solicitor 知識 of Richard's, called at the flat to 示唆する the will should be contested.

Young Jackson practised in Tunbridge 井戸／弁護士席s and Richard knew him only from 会合 him a few times at tennis. Jackson was most apologetic for having come to see him now.

"I know it's hardly 倫理的な," he said, "but, of course, we've all heard about the will and, myself, I think you have a good chance of upsetting it."

"Upon what grounds?" asked Richard はっきりと.

"That when she drew it up," he replied, "she was not in a fit 明言する／公表する of mind to を取り引きする so important a 事柄."

"But Mr. Litchfield, her London solicitor," 抗議するd Richard, "for whose opinion I have the greatest 尊敬（する）・点, tells me I 港／避難所't a hope in the world."

"For all that," said Jackson, "there can be no 害（を与える） done if you authorise me to approach him and see the exact 条件 of the will."

Richard shook his 長，率いる. "No, I won't bother about it, thank you. To be やめる frank, I 港／避難所't the money to 危険. I'm やめる poor at 現在の."

"But that doesn't enter into the 事柄 at all," exclaimed Jackson quickly, "or I wouldn't have dared to come to you. It shan't cost you a penny." He smiled. "I know again that I am 存在 unethical, but I'm やめる 用意が出来ている to （問題を）取り上げる the 事例／患者 on spec."

At that moment Dora entered the room and the young solicitor was introduced to her. With やめる a catch in his breath, he thought how lovely she was and, romance stirring in him, was of opinion she was 価値（がある） all the money her husband had lost by marrying her. Dora was not unimpressed with him, too. She liked his frank and open 直面する.

Richard explained the position to her. "Mr. Jackson wants me to contest the will, as he says Aunt made it when she was not in a fit 明言する／公表する of mind."

"Of course she wasn't," agreed Dora 即時に. "No sane person of her 産む／飼育するing would have called me the 指名するs she did that night." She looked troubled. "But it'll cost a lot of money, won't it?"

"Not a penny if we don't 勝利，勝つ our 事例／患者," said Jackson quickly. "I've told Mr. Stroud I'm 用意が出来ている to 支払う／賃金 all the expenses, 法廷，裁判所 料金s and everything, if we don't 勝利，勝つ our 事例／患者."

"And how will you 利益 if we lose it?" asked Dora doubtfully.

Jackson threw out his 手渡すs. "By the 宣伝 I'll get. 勝利，勝つ or lose, the publicity will be so good that I'll be a made man at once. I've got some small 私的な means and shall be delighted to 危険 some of it."

"But what about the publicity for us?" frowned Richard. "It won't be very pleasant for us to have to appear in 法廷，裁判所."

"You won't have to," returned Jackson 即時に. "As I look at it now, you will not be 手配中の，お尋ね者."

A short silence followed, and then Richard turned to Dora and asked, "井戸／弁護士席, young lady, what do you say to it?"

"Why, 受託する Mr. Jackson's 申し込む／申し出, of course," she replied, "and be 感謝する to him for making it."

Accordingly notice was at once served upon Mr. Litchfield that the will was going to be contested, and when the day for the 審理，公聴会 arrived, most people 現在の in 法廷，裁判所 seemed to be rather amused at so boyish-looking a solicitor as young Jackson 存在 about to 炭坑，オーケストラ席 himself against the mighty Jarvis Romilly, one of the most 著名な King's Counsels practising in the 法廷，裁判所 of Probate. They were intensely curious as to what line of 活動／戦闘 Jackson was going to take.

Lord Royston was 統括するing over the 訴訟／進行s, and when, after its contents had been read out to the 法廷，裁判所 by Jarvis Romilly, the will was 手渡すd up to him to peruse, it was noticed that he frowned ひどく. However, he passed 支援する the 文書 with no comment.

After a few 予選 発言／述べるs by the K.C., Mrs. Humphreys, the one-time cook at Marden 法廷，裁判所, was 勧めるd into the 証言，証人／目撃する-box. The will was 手渡すd up to her and, with no hesitation, she 証言するd to her 署名.

"And you had seen your mistress put her 署名," asked Jarvis Romilly, "in the presence of your fellow-servant, Mr. Bevan, and then both you and he affixed your 署名s in the presence of each other."

"Yes, sir, that is so," replied the cook, and the K.C. at once turned to Mr. Jackson and 発言／述べるd with the politest of 屈服するs, "Your 証言，証人／目撃する, sir."

Young Jackson rose slowly from his seat. He did not seem at all nervous and for a few seconds regarded the cook thoughtfully before he spoke.

"And did Mrs. Britton-Fox seem やめる all 権利 to you that morning?" he asked.

"She looked very ill, sir," replied the cook, "and her 直面する was twitching やめる a lot."

"But I don't mean that," said Jackson. "I want to know did it seem to you that she was any different from what she usually was—in her 明言する／公表する of mind, I mean?"

The cook considered. "She wasn't やめる 確かな what she 手配中の，お尋ね者, sir, from one moment to another. Anyone could see she was rather 混乱させるd."

"What do you mean by rather 混乱させるd?" asked Jackson with a frown.

"井戸／弁護士席, sir," smiled the cook, "when I （機の）カム into the room she told me to shut the door, and then hardly a moment afterwards she called me a fool because I hadn't left it open."

"Why was that?" queried Jackson.

"Because Mr. Bevan hadn't come in yet. She was waiting for him."

Jackson sat 負かす／撃墜する, and Jarvis Romilly rose lazily to his feet. "But after all, Mrs. Humphreys," he said with a pleasant smile, "if your mistress did not look in the best of health that morning and was irritable and impatient in her manner, all the same she was the shrewd and very 有能な old lady you had always known." Then, as the cook hesitated, he asked with some amusement, "Come, she wasn't 混乱させるd enough to mistake you for Mr. Bevan or him for you—now was she?"

"Oh, no," said the cook 即時に. "She was nothing like as bad as that."

"Of course not," nodded the K.C. "She was just what any old lady of her age might have been who had had an upset the previous night and not got over it. She was nervy and irritable." He smiled a most friendly and persuasive smile. "Now is that not so, Mrs. Humphreys?"

The cook smiled 支援する, and upon her admission that it might have been so Jarvis Romilly did not question her その上の.

The butler was then called and he stepped jauntily into the box. He was asked by Jarvis Romilly if he, too, had 証言，証人／目撃するd his mistress's 署名 in the presence of the cook, and then if each of them had seen the other 調印する as 証言，証人／目撃する to that 署名. Upon his replying to these questions in the affirmative, the K.C. sat 負かす／撃墜する.

Young Jackson rose up to cross-診察する. "Now, Mr. Bevan," he asked in a 静かな and conversational トン, "do you think Mrs. Britton-Fox was やめる alive to the importance of the 文書 she was 調印 that morning?"

"Oh, I think so, sir," replied Bevan. "She certainly did look very ill and her 直面する was twitching 不正に, but she was most 決定するd to get the paper 調印するd."

"But from the shakiness of her handwriting," went on Jackson, "she must have been very agitated when she was affixing her 署名?"

The butler considered. "井戸／弁護士席, at any 率, sir," he said, "she was so very の直前に she 調印するd, but as I did not see her 現実に 令状 her 指名する I cannot say what was 正確に／まさに her 条件 at that very moment."

A gasp so loud that it was distinctly audible ran 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the 法廷，裁判所, mouths were opened with astonishment, and upon everyone's 直面する was a look of startled and incredulous surprise. Young Jackson 回復するd first.

"What!" he almost shouted. "You now tell us you did not see your mistress 調印する the will?"

The butler seemed to sense something unusual was happening and lost something of his jaunty look. "井戸／弁護士席, not 現実に, sir," he said quickly, "because after she had covered up what she had written on that paper and was just 選ぶing up her pen to 調印する, I thought I heard the 前線-door bell （犯罪の）一味 and went out to see who it was. I couldn't have been gone a minute, but when I （機の）カム 支援する mistress had 調印するd and cook had just finished putting her 署名. That's how it was cook （機の）カム to 調印する before me. I was to have 調印するd first."

Jarvis Romilly sprang to his feet. "I don't see, my lord," he cried, "that the previous 証言，証人／目撃する is now sitting where she was. If she has gone out, I ask that she be 拘留するd before she has had time to leave the 管区s of the 法廷，裁判所," and, upon a 調印する from the 裁判官, an 勧める hurried away.

With difficulty 抑制するing the exultation that he felt, Jackson proceeded with his cross-examination. "Now, Mr. Bevan," he said very solemnly, "this is a most important 事柄." He spoke slowly and impressively. "After having 明言する／公表するd upon 誓い that you saw both your mistress and your fellow servant 調印する the paper—you now go 支援する upon your word and tell us you were not 現在の when either of them put their 署名s."

The butler looked 脅すd. "I am very sorry, sir," he said with a choke in his 発言する／表明する. "I didn't mean to 断言する an untruth. It was just a mistake. I knew they had both 調印するd it and I thought it was やめる all 権利 to say I had seen them do it."

"You say you knew they had both 調印するd it," said Jackson with the 最大の sternness. "How did you know that?"

"I didn't know it, sir," said the butler feebly, "but I only realise that now."

"Did you even see your mistress's 署名 at all," asked Jackson, "after she had 調印するd the paper?"

Bevan hesitated for a few moments and then shook his 長，率いる. "No, sir, I didn't. She had covered up everything with the blotting paper again and just pointed to me where I was to 調印する."

"Then, for all you know," 固執するd Jackson, "you might have been putting your 署名 to a blank sheet of paper?"

"Yes, sir," nodded the butler miserably, "that is so."

Jackson sat 負かす／撃墜する and Jarvis Romilly sprang to his feet.

"Then you 収容する／認める, Bevan," he 雷鳴d ひどく, "that you have lied to the 法廷，裁判所—that when upon your solemn 誓い you have deliberately told us an untruth?"

"Not deliberately, sir," choked the butler. "I have said it was a mistake."

The K.C. spoke more 静かに now. "And I suppose," he said silkily, "you went at once to Mr. Stroud and told him what had happened, how you had not 現実に seen the will 調印するd?"

"No, no, sir," replied Bevan quickly. "I never said anything about it to him. I have not seen or spoken to Mr. Stroud since that night he left the 法廷，裁判所," and, though Jarvis Romilly badgered him in every way possible, no 量 of 尋問 could make him 否定する himself.

Mrs. Humphreys was 解任するd and Jarvis Romilly 演説（する）／住所d her with the same pleasant, friendly smile which he had used before. "Now, madam," he said, "you told us just now that your mistress 調印するd this paper in your presence and that of Mr. Bevan as 井戸／弁護士席."

"Yes, sir," agreed the cook. "I did."

"And Mr. Bevan was 現実に standing by your 味方する," went on Jarvis Romilly, and the 法廷，裁判所 was so still that the dropping of the proverbial pin would have been heard やめる distinctly.

"Yes, sir," nodded the cook, "he was."

"You are やめる sure of that?" asked the K.C. "やめる sure that he was 現実に standing by your 味方する during the whole time that the three 署名s were affixed?"

"Yes, sir, やめる sure," smiled the cook. "Mistress 調印するd first, I （機の）カム next and Mr. Bevan last." Then suddenly a startled look （機の）カム into her 直面する and she 追加するd quickly, "No, sir, I remember now that Mr. Bevan was not in the room all the time. He went out to answer the 前線-door bell."

"Before your mistress 調印するd?" asked Jarvis Romilly, and the 法廷，裁判所 was as hushed and silent as the 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な.

"Yes, sir," said the cook, "and before I 調印するd, too. I remember he （機の）カム 支援する just as Mistress was blotting my 署名."

Decidedly 非，不，無-plussed at her corroboration of the butler's story, the K.C. tried in every way to shake her 証言, indeed 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます）ing her so much that at last the 裁判官 干渉するd. "I am sure, Mr. Romilly," he said, "that you will not be doing any good by その上の 尋問 the 証言，証人／目撃する. She is 明白に speaking the truth." Then, when the cook had left the 証言，証人／目撃する-box, he 発表するd curtly, "The will was not 適切に attested and I 拒絶する／低下する to 収容する／認める it for probate."

"But, my lord," 抗議するd Jarvis Romilly 温かく, "the 意向s of the testatrix are so （疑いを）晴らす and it is not 司法（官） if——"

"How often, Mr. Romilly," broke in his lordship wearily, "have I not had to explain in this 法廷，裁判所 that it is 法律 I have to dispense here and not やむを得ず 司法（官）. No, the will is 無効の, and I cannot 収容する／認める it for probate."

The young Tunbridge 井戸／弁護士席s solicitor felt as thrilled as he was sure he would ever feel in all his life, and 急ぐd to the telephone to give Richard the exciting news. However, upon getting speech with him, he 静めるd 負かす／撃墜する his 発言する／表明する to ordinary 商売／仕事-like トンs.

"It's all finished, Mr. Stroud," he said 静かに, "and his lordship has 辞退するd to 収容する／認める the will for probate."

"What, what, why?" exclaimed Richard incredulously.

"Because it wasn't 適切に attested," laughed Jackson. "I got it out of the butler in cross-examination that he was out of the room when the old lady 調印するd. He didn't 現実に see her make her 署名 and that damned everything at once." They spoke very 簡潔に together and then Jackson said, "I can't tell you more now, but, if convenient for you, I'll come 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to your flat this evening at five o'clock."

When Richard in turn rang up Dora to give her the good news she was speechless for so long that for a moment he thought she could not have heard what he said. Then she burst out chokingly, "Oh, darling, it can't be true!"

"But it is, Dora," he said hoarsely. "I couldn't believe it, either, at first—it seemed so wonderful. Anyhow, Mr. Jackson's coming 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to the flat at five and then we'll hear all about it. He says it'll be in the evening papers."

And certainly it was in the evening papers, with some of them making やめる a splash of the happening that morning in the Probate 法廷，裁判所. One of them featured the 事例／患者 with やめる good-sized headlines, "広大な／多数の／重要な 勝利 for Young Country Solicitor", and it went on to picture for its readers a boyish-looking young lawyer standing up to the 広大な／多数の／重要な Jarvis Romilly and 得点する／非難する／２０ing a most signal victory within minutes of the 審理，公聴会 開始 before Lord Royston.

Later, when Charles Jackson arrived at the flat, his audience were thrilled with the story he was able to tell them.

"So far," he went on, "things couldn't be going better. We have won the first 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and now, at any 率, you are 確かな to get something very 相当な out of the 広い地所. The 火刑／賭ける is too big for them to dare 危険ing everything upon an 控訴，上告 before they have tried to come to 条件 with you."

"Then they'll try to buy us off?" asked Richard.

"No," laughed Jackson, "they'll be 推定する／予想するing us to try to buy them off, as we are in the better position for 取引ing. Lord Royston is a very sound jurist and he wouldn't have given his judgment so quickly if he had not felt himself on very sure ground. Of course the will was so malicious in its 乱用 of both you and Mrs. Stroud that it was a strong 指示，表示する物 of your aunt 存在 in a 明言する／公表する of unsound mind when she drew it up, but that had nothing to do with his judgment to-day. His lordship decided on a 冷淡な point of 法律, and I believe, from the 表現 upon his 直面する, he was やめる pleased at 存在 able to do so."

"And what will happen next?" asked Dora, rather troubled.

"Oh, it'll 解決する itself into a 事例／患者 of bluff," said Jackson. "They'll approach us with an 申し込む／申し出 of so much of the value of the 広い地所 if they don't 控訴，上告. We'll say it isn't good enough and then we'll argue and 口論する人 until some 協定 is reached."

"But what are they likely to 申し込む／申し出?" asked Richard.

"Perhaps a fifth 部分 at first, and then, when we don't 受託する, they 徐々に raise their 申し込む／申し出. I 推定する／予想する a half 株 of everything will be their 最大の 限界."

"But must we 妥協 at all?" asked Richard.

Jackson nodded emphatically. "Oh, yes, it would be very foolish not to. You see, as Jarvis Romilly said, the 意向s of your aunt were so perfectly （疑いを）晴らす, and it's very uncertain what the 控訴，上告 裁判官s would decide. They're only human and at times just love to give a 同僚 a 非難する on the knuckles and put him in his place. So they might waive the 欠陥のある 任命 in favour of your aunt's wishes 存在 carried out. Then—we should have to 落ちる 支援する upon the 嘆願 that she was of unsound mind."

"Have we any chance there?" asked Dora gloomily.

The young lawyer was やめる enthusiastic. "Oh, yes, a very good one, a much stronger one than they think." He took a paper out of his pocket with something of a 勝利を得た grin. "See, I got this out of Dr. 支持を得ようと努めるd a week ago. It's an affidavit in which he 断言するs that when called in to see your aunt upon that Sunday morning—within a few minutes, mind you, of her having drawn up and 調印するd that will—he was at once of opinion that her mind was wandering. In proof of which, when he at once rang up the 地元の Nurses' 協会 in Tunbridge 井戸／弁護士席s, he asked them to send a nurse who had had some mental training." He snapped his fingers together. "What better 証拠 could you want than that?"

He turned smilingly to Dora. "And if, Mrs. Stroud, they do 控訴，上告 and you go into the 証言，証人／目撃する-box, when their lordships see you"—he laughed merrily—"what price the depravity of Mr. Stroud in wanting to marry you?"

Things happened very much as Jackson had said, for a few days later Mr. Litchfield rang him up with the （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） that of course they were ーするつもりであるing to 控訴，上告, but at the same time 示唆するing it might perhaps be possible to 避ける その上の 訴訟／進行s in the 法廷，裁判所s by a just and reasonable 妥協. He 追加するd that he would like Jackson to come up to Town upon the に引き続いて Thursday when he would be 解放する／自由な to have a talk with him.

Jackson, however, did not appear to be too anxious to make the 旅行 and said he certainly could not manage Thursday as he was 占領するd in the 地元の 法廷，裁判所 upon that day. Upon some consideration he 示唆するd Sunday instead and Mr. Litchfield reluctantly agreed.

Accordingly, upon the Sunday morning the two lawyers met at Mr. Litchfield's 私的な house in Belsize Park, and the latter, with his large and long-設立するd practice の中で the best-class people, was inclined to be a little off-手渡す in his manner に向かって his very youthful-looking professional brother from the country.

"I had some difficulty in 説得するing my （弁護士の）依頼人 to let me approach you," he said with a frown, "but having 行為／法令／行動するd for the family for very many years, I thought it best if things could be settled in a friendly way."

However, Jackson was not to be taken in so easily and frowned, too. "I had the same difficulty with Mr. Stroud," he said. "He's very bitter about the 言い回し of the will and wants to （疑いを）晴らす his wife of the aspersions cast upon her. Mr. Wynwood has been very tactless in broadcasting 正確に／まさに what his aunt wrote, and it has got about all over Tunbridge 井戸／弁護士席s."

Mr. Litchfield looked annoyed. "He shouldn't have done so. It makes for bad 血." He （疑いを）晴らすd his throat. "井戸／弁護士席, Mr. Jackson, it will be in every way better for your （弁護士の）依頼人 if we come to some 妥協. Your （弁護士の）依頼人 has a poor 事例／患者 and that judgment of last week is bound to be upset upon 控訴，上告."

Young Jackson smiled. "I don't think so," he said emphatically, "and I am advising Mr. Stroud to agree to only the smallest of 譲歩s." He nodded. "Apart altogether from that judgment, we have a very strong 事例／患者."

Mr. Litchfield seemed most sorry for the inexperience of this so 確信して young man. "But, Mr. Jackson," he said in a 苦痛d トン of 発言する／表明する, "in 取引，協定ing with testaments brought before it, the main consideration of the 法廷，裁判所 of Probate is always to 決定する the wishes of the 死んだ and see that they are carried out."

"正確に／まさに," nodded Jackson pleasantly, "but that is, of course, when the party 調印 the testament has not been 証明するd to be in an unsound 明言する／公表する of mind." His 発言する／表明する 常習的な はっきりと. "In this 事例／患者 we 競う the testatrix was not in a 条件 to realise 正確に／まさに what she was doing in those few minutes when she drew up and 調印するd that will."

Mr. Litchfield pursed up his lips. "You will have some difficulty in bringing the 法廷，裁判所 to 受託する that 見解（をとる）, won't you?"

"I don't think so," snapped Jackson. He raised his 手渡す. "See here, Mr. Litchfield, I am やめる willing to lay my cards upon the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する." He spoke slowly and emphatically. "This is how I regard the position. Mrs. Britton-Fox, a lady of 産む／飼育するing and refinement who all her sixty-半端物 years had been living the 伝統的な life of her class, had a 深い affection for her 甥, Richard Stroud, dating 支援する to the time when he was やめる a little child. She paid for most of his education, gave him an allowance when he was twenty-one and was continually 保証するing him he would be 井戸／弁護士席 供給するd for at her death."

He threw out his 手渡すs. "Suddenly, and without a moment's 警告—no 事柄 why—she turned upon him and the young lady he was ーするつもりであるing to make his wife, 乱用d them in coarse and violent 条件 used only by the lowest of the low, and was so lost to all the self-尊敬（する）・点 and 条約s of her class that she called in the servants to let them hear what she was 説."

Mr. Litchfield made no comment and Jackson went on, "A few hours later she drew up this precious will—certainly not so much as to make known her wishes as to the 処分 of her 所有物／資産／財産 as to （打撃，刑罰などを）与える その上の 乱用 upon the 感情を害する／違反するing couple. Then, at that moment her mind was so 混乱させるd with the 一区切り／（ボクシングなどの）試合 of her mad fury that, a shrewd and clever 商売／仕事 woman and accustomed to all forms of 手続き in the 扱うing of her 事件／事情／状勢s as she was—she yet so far forgot herself as to 調印する her will in the presence of only one 証言，証人／目撃する."

He paused for a few moments, and Mr. Litchfield, with some sarcasm, asked, "Is that all?"

"No, it isn't," was the sharp reply, and the young solicitor spoke very deliberately. "Not half an hour after she had 調印するd that will, Mr. Litchfield, she was mistaking the 地元の Tunbridge 井戸／弁護士席s doctor, Dr. 支持を得ようと努めるd, whom she has known intimately for twenty years, for the 著名な London 顧問, Sir Robert Griffin, and 演説（する）／住所d him as such."

A short silence followed, and then as Mr. Litchfield made no comment, young Jackson asked dryly, "A most 満足な mental 条件 for her to be in, wasn't it, Mr. Litchfield, just after she had drawn up what was undoubtedly the most important 文書 in all her life?" He raised his 発言する／表明する. "But still, that is not all, sir," and quickly abstracting a paper from his breast pocket, he 手渡すd it across to Mr. Litchfield. "See—an affidavit from this Dr. 支持を得ようと努めるd in which he 明言する／公表するs that after 存在 called in to Mrs. Britton-Fox upon that Sunday morning he was feeling most uneasy as to her mental 条件, so much so that when he rang up the Tunbridge 井戸／弁護士席s Nursing 協会 すぐに afterwards he told them it was 特に a nurse with some experience of nursing mental 患者s that he 要求するd."

Jackson spoke scornfully. "And in the 直面する of all this, have you the hardihood to tell me we have no 事例／患者 that the testatrix was of unsound mind when she drew up this will?"

For an hour and longer the 事柄 was discussed by the two solicitors, and that evening Jackson 報告（する）／憶測d to Richard the result.

"They want 不正に to come to some 協定," he said, "and we should want it, too. In fact we must come to an 協定. Think how awful it would be if the 事例／患者 did go to an 控訴，上告 and we lost it. We should be grieving all our lives. There's plenty to divide if we only get half, the Marden 法廷，裁判所 所有物／資産／財産 and all the house 含む／封じ込めるs, the house in Cadogan Square, which brings in &続けざまに猛撃する;450 a year rent, and about &続けざまに猛撃する;275,000 in liquid 資産s, 在庫／株s and 株. I went through everything with Mr. Litchfield this morning and was astounded at the 量 at 火刑／賭ける. I had no idea it was so big."

"井戸／弁護士席, do get it over quickly," said Dora with a choke in her 発言する／表明する. "The worry of it is terrible."

"Of course it is," agreed Jackson. "One thing—the worry of it must be just as bad for Mr. Wynwood, indeed perhaps worse for him than for you, as I heard a rumour in the city last week that things have not been going too 井戸／弁護士席 with him lately. It was said he'd been 推測するing and lost ひどく." He spoke reassuringly. "So, worry as little as you can, Mrs. Stroud, as it should be all settled pretty soon now. I've 示唆するd a 会合 between your husband and his cousin next week, and I 推定する／予想する it'll come off."

It did come off 権利 enough, and one morning Jackson and Richard arrived at Mr. Litchfield's 議会s in Gray's Inn Road to find the lawyer and Wynwood waiting for them. For the moment the two cousins 注目する，もくろむd each other warily like fighting dogs and then Wynwood burst into a loud laugh and held out his 手渡す.

"Come on, Richard," he called out jovially, "don't let a mere 事柄 of half a million make us unpleasant with each other. After all, it's only a 一時的な 事件／事情／状勢, for in fifty years' time, both of us'll probably be dead," and, very pleased with his joke, he shook Richard 温かく by the 手渡す.

Jackson flashed a quick look at Richard. It was evident the burly stockbroker had been having some refreshment to ブイ，浮標 himself up.

The four men sat 負かす／撃墜する at a big （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する in a comfortably furnished room and Mr. Litchfield opened the 訴訟／進行s by 発言／述べるing it would be best in every way that an 協定 should be reached between the cousins as then there would be no occasion for any reflections on their dead 親族 to be broadcast about.

"Oh, dammit all, Litchfield," broke in the stockbroker rudely, "everyone knew what the old woman was like. Besides, nothing that comes out can do her any 害（を与える） now." He 演説（する）／住所d himself to Richard. "The only question now is what 条件 are you 用意が出来ている to 申し込む／申し出 me if I don't 控訴，上告 against that 決定／判定勝ち（する） given the other week?"

Richard hesitated to reply, and Jackson at once spoke up for him. "We have very carefully considered everything," he began, "and——"

"Excuse me," interrupted Wynwood, waving him aside, "but I'd rather talk 直接／まっすぐに to my cousin. Then I'm sure we'll be able to settle the 事柄 in a few minutes." He turned 突然の to Mr. Litchfield. "Look here. 港／避難所't you got a room somewhere where we could be alone together?"

"But I don't advise that," said Mr. Litchfield はっきりと. "This is a 事柄 for trained 合法的な minds to be at your 肘s to advise you both. No, I don't advise that."

"Nor I, either," said young Jackson, 平等に as はっきりと. "I agree with Mr. Litchfield that——"

Wynwood ignored them both and, turning again to his cousin, asked, "What do you say, Richard? I am sure we shall get on better alone."

Richard hesitated. Strangely enough, though he had never liked his cousin, at that moment he was disliking him いっそう少なく than he had ever done before. There was something very human about him, and he liked the straightforward way in which he was evidently 用意が出来ている to try to settle the 事柄.

"井戸／弁護士席, I don't see any 害（を与える） in it," he began, "and——"

"No, of course you don't," broke in his cousin, rising at once to his feet. "Come on, we'll go out and take a couple of turns 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the square and come 支援する with the whole thing 削減（する） and 乾燥した，日照りのd in a very few minutes," and, waving his 手渡す to the two very annoyed-looking men of 法律, he led Richard out of the room.

Once out in the square, he 発言／述べるd dryly, "A good thing to get away from those jaw-breakers. They'd talk for hours and get nothing settled." He guffawed heartily. "Old Litchfield thinks I'm half tight, but I'm not by any means. I've only had one brandy and soda, and, by Jove, I could do with another. There's a nice little pub just 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the corner and we'll go in there and I'll stand you a drink."

So, a couple of minutes later, they were seated in the 砂漠d lounge of a small hotel and Wynwood opened the ball with no 延期する.

"Now, I know we've never liked each other," he said briskly, "but that's been mostly because of jealousy. I've always been jealous of you. As small boys, Aunt used to give you a quid and me a lousy five （頭が）ひょいと動く, and I didn't think it fair even then. Lately, she's been making you a good allowance and never given me a penny. She got her dander up, too, because I married a 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業-maid, but I've got a damned 罰金 missis and we're very happy."

He took out a 事例／患者 and, giving Richard a cigarette, lighted one himself. "Now, Richard," he went on, "let's be やめる frank with one another. We were the only two relations Aunt had and I think it devilish 不公平な one of us should have more than the other of what she's left. We せねばならない 株 平等に."

"You didn't think so the other day," 発言／述べるd Richard dryly, "when Mr. Litchfield 示唆するd you should give something to me."

"I did think it," said Wynwood emphatically, "but it rankled in me that your wife had slapped my 直面する—and a damned hard 非難する, too. Oh yes, I know I deserved it, but I didn't know she was anybody else's 所有物／資産／財産 then, and I just slipped my arm 一連の会議、交渉／完成する her waist on the 刺激（する） of the moment." He regarded Richard intently. "Believe it or not, I'd have come 負かす／撃墜する with something handsome if you had asked me for it yourself. But you're such a damned proud fellow and you never 示唆するd my giving you anything."

"Am I to believe that?" asked Richard with some sarcasm.

"Yes," （機の）カム the answer 即時に. "I felt very sorry for you, and so did my wife. Damn it all, couldn't we see Aunt was only spiting you for the same 推論する／理由 she had spited me—because we had both chosen girls she didn't 認可する of for our wives?"

"And you say you'd have given me half?" asked Richard with a grim smile.

Wynwood shook his 長，率いる emphatically. "No, I don't say that for a moment. I don't pretend my nature's as noble as that." He spoke conversationally. "You see, Richard, in my work it's the smart one who gets all the plums and there's never any 激励 for 罰金 feelings. Upon the 交流 we're all birds of prey on the look-out to get the better of the other fellow. For example, suppose I get 持つ／拘留する of a bit of （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） that no one else has heard of and, in consequence, have good 推論する／理由 to believe 確かな 株 will go up in value. 井戸／弁護士席, I 始める，決める out 静かに to buy a packet of them on the cheap, and so a few days later some poor devil is 悪口を言う／悪態ing because he's been taken 負かす／撃墜する." He shook his 長，率いる again. "No, I certainly shouldn't have 申し込む／申し出d you half. A fifth would probably have been about the 限界."

"And yet you 示唆する you should have half now?"

Wynwood laughed. "Yes, things have become different and very tricky for us both. Everything hangs upon a かみそり's 辛勝する／優位, and the cleverest and most experienced man of 法律 cannot tell which way the balance will go."

"The 半端物s are in my favour," said Richard.

The other shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? Who can say that? Litchfield has told me, and I'll bet any money Jackson has told you the same, too, that it's all a 投げ上げる／ボディチェックする up." He clenched his fingers together. "And here are we, two damned fools, with more than &続けざまに猛撃する;270,000 in liquid 資産s, money that could be cash in our pockets, within half an hour of probate going through, trying to bluff each other to get a few quid more." He spoke frowningly. "You want a 解決／入植地, don't you?"

"Of course I do," 宣言するd Richard. "The whole 商売／仕事 is a terrible worry."

"Worry!" exclaimed the stockbroker, and with the deepest of sighs. He leant over に向かって Richard and almost whispered, "Why, it's such a worry to my poor little wife that I shall not dare to go 支援する this morning and tell her nothing's been done. Poor little woman, she can't eat, she can't sleep and she 麻薬を吸うs her 注目する，もくろむ every time she looks at the children." He nodded. "I've got two of the nicest little nippers you ever saw." He spoke confidingly. "You know—I don't mind admitting things are not too good with me just at 現在の, and a few thousand now will make all the difference in the world. I'm hard up."

Now there can be no 疑問 that had Mr. Litchfield been 現在の to hear his （弁護士の）依頼人's last 発言／述べる, his very hair would have stood on end. In a 選び出す／独身 宣告，判決, he would have argued, the stockbroker had given away his whole 事例／患者 and exposed his 乗り気 to 受託する even the hardest 解決／入植地—as long as he got something.

However, upon Richard the 信用／信任 had a startling and very different 影響. All in a moment he saw his cousin in a new light and no longer as the wily and rather swaggering schemer, bluffing to get the last penny he could. Instead, he appeared a very human and rather to be pitied family man with a 深遠な affection for his wife and very troubled because of the 苦悩 she was in.

Also, in a flash Richard's mind harked 支援する to his own wife, how worried she was and what an 圧倒的な 救済 it would be to her if he could return home and tell her all was settled.

He took a sudden 決意／決議 and regarded his cousin with an amused and friendly smile. "You're a clever chap, Ernest," he said, "and, perhaps, not half the bad sort I've always thought you. Yes, I'll make you an 申し込む／申し出 and you'd better 受託する it quickly before those jawbreakers, as you call them, upset our minds again."

His cousin looked most relieved, but for all that there was a 公式文書，認める of 苦悩 in his 発言する／表明する as he said hoarsely, "Good for you, Richard! I knew we could do better by ourselves. Now what do you 提案する?"

"Divide the money 平等に between us," said Richard. "Then I'll take Marden 法廷，裁判所 with all it 含む／封じ込めるs, and you'll have the house in Cadogan Square, also with all its contents 損なわれていない. An 暫定的な 文書 to be 用意が出来ている straightaway and 調印するd by us both before we leave Mr. Litchfield's 議会s."

For the moment the 表現 upon the stockbroker's 直面する was a blank one and then it changed into one of delighted surprise. The 申し込む／申し出 was more generous than he hoped and his 直面する showed it. He shook Richard 温かく by the 手渡す.

"Yes, I think it やめる fair," he said. "You've got rather the better 取引 in the 事柄 of the houses, but in a way that's only fair as you are the man in 所有／入手 and in the better position for 取引ing. Come on now. We'll go and give those two johnnies the surprise of their lives."

And certainly it was a surprise for the solicitors, though, when the surprise had passed, they both agreed it was a just 解決／入植地. In his own mind Mr. Litchfield was inclined to be annoyed that his （弁護士の）依頼人 had parted with the many art treasures in the 法廷，裁判所 so easily, but he wisely kept his opinion to himself. As for young Jackson, he was delighted, for, in 私的な, he had been just as worried as any of the other parties 関心d as to what might have happened had the 事柄 gone to an 控訴，上告.

In 予定 time the previous will was 認める to probate and すぐに afterwards Dora and Richard went to live at the 法廷，裁判所. A few weeks later Bevan （機の）カム to see them and, Dora happening to be out, Richard received him alone. Richard shook 手渡すs 温かく and said, "I'm glad you've come. I couldn't find out where you had gone and I want to do something for you."

The butler smiled. "I kept away on 目的, sir, so that you shouldn't 申し込む／申し出 me anything." He shook his 長，率いる. "No thank you, sir. I have all I need. Under my late master's will I （機の）カム into &続けざまに猛撃する;2,000 when my mistress died. I've only come to see you now because I'm leaving for Australia the day after to-morrow, and I thought I'd like to say good-bye." He hesitated a moment and then 追加するd: "Besides, I've something I want to tell you."

"井戸／弁護士席, I've a lot to thank you for," said Richard. He laughed happily. "But for your accidentally 存在 out of the room when that will was 存在 調印するd all I would have come in for would have been that shilling."

The butler spoke very 本気で. "It was no 事故, sir. I went out on 目的 to 無効にする the will. I only pretended to think I'd heard the bell, as, knowing Mistress's impatience, I felt やめる sure she would 調印する without waiting for me to come 支援する."

Richard was aghast. "But—but have you told that to anyone besides me?" he asked. A sudden light 夜明けd upon him, and his arm 発射 out accusingly. "A-ah, I know you have. You told Mr. Jackson."

Bevan nodded. "Yes, sir, I did, but we both thought it was wisest not to について言及する it to you then, so that the other 味方する should not be able to 示唆する there was any 共謀 between us."

"共謀 between us!" exclaimed the astonished Richard. "Why, what on earth do you mean? You had no 利益／興味 in the will or in me."

"井戸／弁護士席, not 正確に／まさに, sir," replied Bevan slowly. "Still, all my sympathies were with you and I thought it really terrible the things Mistress called Mrs. Stroud." He regarded Richard 刻々と.

Richard could hardly get his breath. "Then that 商売／仕事 in the 証言，証人／目撃する-box," he asked in a shocked トン of 発言する／表明する, "was all arranged between you and Mr. Jackson? It was a trumped-up piece of 事実上の／代理 by both of you?"

Bevan's 表現 was as 近づく a grin as his solemn and impassive 直面する could get. "Yes, sir, and we had to rehearse it a good many times before Mr. Jackson was 満足させるd with me," and then, 公式文書，認めるing the frown of 不賛成 on Richard's 直面する, he 追加するd quickly, "You see, sir, Mr. Jackson said that what we did was やめる 正当化するd. It was only an 行為／法令／行動する of 司法（官）, because Mistress was not in her 権利 mind when she made that last will. Oh no, sir, no one but you will ever know, and if you don't mind, sir, I'd rather you never について言及する to Mr. Jackson that I've been to see you. For my own sake I shall never speak of it again to another soul."

"You're going to Australia, you say?" asked Richard.

"Yes, sir, and I shall never come 支援する to England," replied Bevan. "I'm over seventy, and going to a younger brother in Queensland who's been settled on the land there for nearly forty years. Good-bye, sir, and good luck to you both." He put his finger upon his lips and smiled slyly. "Better not say anything about it to Mrs. Stroud, sir. Secrets are never good for the ladies. I know I should feel dreadfully worried if cook knew."

And when alone by himself again Richard did not やめる know whether he せねばならない feel intensely angry with young Jackson or—most 感謝する to him for the trick he had played.

CHAPTER VII. — GHOSTS

ONLY A few months after his aunt's death, his uncle died, too, and Richard （機の）カム into the baronetcy. Then followed four years of almost unalloyed happiness for Dora. Two children were born to her and she was worshipped by her husband. With her good looks and her 宙に浮く and dignity as if she （機の）カム from の中で the highest in the land, he was immensely proud of her.

As had always been her dream, she moved now の中で the best society people, and she often smiled to herself as she compared her 現在の 明言する／公表する with that when she lived in those 淡褐色 and ill-furnished rooms above the ワイン offices in Bordeaux. She sighed a little, however, thinking how thrilled her poor mother would have been had she only lived to see how she had got on.

She hardly ever thought of her father now, 解任するing as foolishness the idea that she would ever find him, and realising now that if, by some miraculous chance, she 現実に did come to learn who he was, she would never dare to 公表する／暴露する herself to him. So she had long 中止するd to make any enquiries for anyone who 所有するd the unusual Christian 指名する of Athol.

She had grown to love her husband dearly, and there was an almost perfect 信用／信任 between them. She had told him of most of the happenings of her life, and の中で other things how she （機の）カム to work for three months for Madame de Roche at the 学校／設ける of Perfect Health. Afterwards, she had rather regretted she had told him that, as he had been horrified to think his so beautiful and stately wife had had anything to do with a woman who had been 宣告，判決d to seven years' penal servitude for the carrying out of 違法な 操作／手術s. Wide as the world was, he was uneasy that one day she might run up against one of the 患者s she had …に出席するd there.

Though she had not told him so, Dora was always a little bit uneasy about that, too, with the vague 恐れる always at the 支援する of her mind that a 令状 had once been 現実に 問題／発行するd for her. ありふれた sense told her no 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 could ever have been brought home to her, but for all that the スキャンダル of 存在 brought before a 治安判事 would have been terrible. She had often read in the newspapers about the long arm of the 法律, and though so many years had gone by she was never wholly 解放する／自由な of the 恐れる that one day she might yet be called upon to explain her 協会 with Madame.

This 恐れる had almost died 負かす／撃墜する when one day it was suddenly 生き返らせるd again by coming 直面する to 直面する with Madame's cousin, the hated Anna Barl, in Regent Street. Dora had got her eldest child with her, a little boy of a few months over three, and had come out of a shop and was just stepping into her car when she felt rather than saw someone 星／主役にするing hard at her. Turning casually to see who it was, on the instant she recognised Anna. The latter's mouth was gaping wide and her 注目する，もくろむs almost popping out of her 長，率いる as she took in Dora, the little boy and the beautiful big car with its liveried chauffeur.

It was all over in いっそう少なく than a minute, and Dora was driven 速く away, with her heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing painfully. Of course, she told herself, Anna had 完全にするd her years of 監禁，拘置, but what a mercy it was they had met when she, Dora, was not on foot in the street. Then it would have been just like the woman's impudence to have stopped to question her, and she might even have 試みる／企てるd to follow her to find out where she was living now.

Altogether the 遭遇（する） had been a very disconcerting one for Dora, and, without 説 anything to Richard, she brooded over it やめる a lot, wondering fearfully if the pages of that unpleasant 一時期／支部 in her life were ever going to be turned again.

It was altogether a most depressing time for England just then, as everyone was talking about the war which most of them thought must 必然的に come. The baleful 影をつくる／尾行する of Adolf Hitler was ぼんやり現れるing large and menacingly over the world, and prospects of peace looked very small. Richard, with his training in metallurgical chemistry, had already given his service to the 政府, and as his work lay in London, he was only 解放する／自由な at week-ends.

In the late spring of 1939 when Dora had just passed her twenty-ninth birthday, she went 負かす／撃墜する, …を伴ってd by her little ones and their nurse, to stay with a Mrs. Bentick Rayneham at Blackston Manor a few miles out of East Dereham in Norfolk. She had recently become very friendly with her, a charming girl about her own age, with one little boy. Her husband was very 井戸／弁護士席-to-do and the squire of Blackston village. A いわゆる gentleman 農業者, his 広大な／多数の／重要な hobby was a stud of Jersey cows, with the Blackston 緊張する taking many prizes at the 農業の shows.

Knowing there were nearly always 訪問者s at the Manor, a large old-world house standing in 広範囲にわたる grounds, Dora was 推定する／予想するing cheerful company for her visit, and she was certainly not disappointed there. Upon her arrival she 設立する several other 訪問者s, all of them, however, except one, 存在 either middle-老年の or 年輩の.

Still, they were most of them 利益／興味ing, 特に so Milton-Byles, an 著名な King's Counsel, Lord Merrildon, a 井戸／弁護士席-known 裁判官, and 中尉／大尉／警部補 Harry Jocelyn, a 甥 of Mrs. Rayneham, a breezy, manly young fellow in the 早期に twenties.

She took to the 中尉／大尉／警部補 as readily as he seemed to take to her. Of the 罰金 type the British 海軍 nearly always makes of those who serve her, he was light-hearted, 十分な of spirit and the love of adventure. As she learnt later, he had already seen active service and been in several 小衝突s with 著作権侵害者s in the 中国 seas.

The 裁判官's wife, too, at once took a 広大な／多数の／重要な fancy to her and, 存在 a childless woman herself, was always most 利益／興味d in the children. Very ordinary-looking, but coming from one of the best 郡 families, she had been plain Mrs. Vaughan until a few years 以前, when, upon his elevation to the （法廷の）裁判, her husband had been made a peer. One evening in the lounge, a few days after her arrival, she made Dora most uneasy by 発表するing suddenly that she was sure she had seen her somewhere before.

"You know, you've puzzled me ever since I （機の）カム here," she said. "Your 直面する seems so familiar to me somehow." She called across the lounge to her husband. "James, where have we seen Lady Stroud before. You think, too, that we have met her, don't you?"

His lordship, a very handsome and distinguished-looking man, （機の）カム over at once. "Certainly, I believe we have," he replied smilingly, "or, at any 率, you've made me think so"—he 屈服するd gallantly—"though how, once seen, we can't place a 直面する like hers, I really cannot understand."

Now Richard had never made any secret that Dora had once been a sister at St. Jude's. Indeed it was his proud 誇る that they had never needed a doctor for any of the children's little 病気s because she knew so much about them. So Dora said at once, "井戸／弁護士席, for six months I was with Sir Robert Griffin, the 顧問 in Harley Street, and——"

"Oh, but I've never been to him," broke in Lady Merrildon, "though, goodness knows, in my time I've been to plenty of doctors for my 頭痛s."

"And now she's stopped going to them," nodded her husband, "she's better than ever she has been before." He laughed. "And she's 協議するd many other people besides doctors. Indeed, I should say half the quacks in London have had money out of her for massage, different coloured rays and all sorts of weird 治療s." He looked very amused. "She won't tell me half the dreadful places she's been to."

His wife smilingly 小衝突d aside his 告訴，告発s. "Never mind," she nodded confidently to Dora, "sooner or later it'll come 支援する to me where we've met. My memory always helps me out in the end."

Dora felt a horrid feeling at the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 of her stomach. What if Lady Merrildon had been one of Madame's 患者s? Certainly she had no recollection of her, but then she was so very ordinary looking that she mightn't have noticed her. As for not remembering the 指名する—she mightn't have been Lady Merrildon then. Oh, how dreadful if it （機の）カム 支援する into her mind that she had seen her, Dora, at the 学校／設ける! She was sure to have read in the newspapers that Madame had been put in 刑務所，拘置所!

Unhappily that was not the only shock poor Dora was going to have at the Manor, as the very next morning, walking along one of the paths in a part of the large garden some little distance from the house, to her amazement and びっくり仰天 she recognised in one of the gardeners working there her old admirer, the artist, Eric Chalmers. He was bending 負かす／撃墜する, weeding, when she was about to pass him, but, looking up and 明らかに at once realising who it was, he rose to his feet and stood 直面するing her.

She stopped and regarded him with 脅すd 注目する，もくろむs.

It was he, sure enough, but he had 大いに altered in the five years since she had last seen him. His hair had greyed, his 直面する was thin and 天候-beaten, there were 深い lines about his 注目する，もくろむs and he looked altogether an old man. His 着せる／賦与するs were 国／地域d and ragged and all out of 形態／調整, and instead of a collar he had a scarf 新たな展開d 一連の会議、交渉／完成する his neck.

"Yes, it's me," he grinned with his old devil-may-care, impish 空気／公表する, "but a bit worse for wear and 涙／ほころび, and I'm called Henry 支持を得ようと努めるd now. Oh, yes, I knew you were staying here. I recognised you the other day as you were getting out of your car and I've heard all about you since. So you're Lady Stroud, are you, with マリファナs of money and all that? You've gone up and I've gone 負かす／撃墜する. Serves us both 権利. We've each got our 砂漠s."

Dora 設立する her 発言する／表明する. "Oh, Eric, I'm so sorry——" she began.

"Don't you pity me," he interrupted はっきりと. "I don't want it. I'm やめる happy. I've got a cottage in the village and I get roaring drunk every Saturday night. A gentleman's life at the end of the week and I don't complain." He fumbled in one of his pockets and produced a 倍のd piece of paper. "Here, take this, I've been on the 警戒／見張り to give it to you. It's some （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） you 手配中の，お尋ね者."

He touched his cap ironically with his finger. "Good morning, Lady Stroud, and don't you ever 試みる／企てる to speak to me again." He almost snarled his next words. "Get off with you, quick. I've finished with you in this life and any other life, too," and turning his 支援する on her, he bent 負かす／撃墜する and 再開するd his weeding.

Dora was very 静かな that night at dinner; so much so that the 裁判官 決起大会／結集させるd her about it and 手配中の，お尋ね者 to know if she had a 頭痛. Later, he had やめる a long conversation with her in the lounge, telling her something of his work in the 刑事裁判所s and how 広大な／多数の／重要な was his 責任／義務 いつかs to 持つ／拘留する the 規模s of 司法（官） 平等に.

"And when a man is 存在 tried, say for 殺人," asked Dora curiously, "are you always 確かな in your own mind whether he is innocent or 有罪の?"

He shook his 長，率いる. "No, I am not, and then I often feel most sorry for the poor jurymen and women who have to make the 決定／判定勝ち（する）." He smiled. "You see—so much of the really important 証拠 is like water on a duck's 支援する to them and I am afraid they are always more 影響（力）d than they should be by the 外見 of the （刑事）被告 person. Then when a clever gentleman like Mr. Milton-Byles gets 持つ／拘留する of them they get all muddled up and don't know what to think."

"But you always have the last word in your summing-up, 港／避難所't you?" said Dora.

"And that's when the 責任／義務 comes in," he nodded. "Often upon what I tell them depends whether the life of the poor creature before me is 削減（する） short—or he goes 解放する／自由な." He smiled. "Yes, a 裁判官's life, like that of the humble policeman in the song, is not always a happy one."

The に引き続いて day, a Sunday, やめる a large party sat 負かす／撃墜する to lunch, as two extra 訪問者s, Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Larose, had arrived for the meal. Dora had been told a lot beforehand by Mrs. Rayneham about this Mr. Larose and how before his marriage to the 豊富な 未亡人 of Sir Charles Ardane he had been only a 探偵，刑事-視察官 at Scotland Yard.

"But there's nothing ありふれた about him, Dora," she said, "for he's one of nature's gentlemen and such a 肉親，親類d and charming man. Everybody likes him. The marriage, about fifteen or sixteen years ago, was やめる a romance, and they do say it was Lady Ardane, as she was then, who 提案するd to him. He didn't dare to, as she was a very 豊富な woman."

"And he was only a policeman?" asked Dora wonderingly.

"Not 正確に／まさに, as he was the 星／主役にする 探偵，刑事 of Scotland Yard, and the very best one they've ever had. He was a genius in his way and they used to say laughingly that when a 殺人 had been committed he could even see the 影をつくる／尾行する that the 殺害者 had left upon the 塀で囲む."

"And has the marriage to this rich woman turned out all 権利?" asked Dora.

"Oh, yes, you couldn't find a happier couple. They've got three children and Mrs. Larose is as delightful a woman as her husband is a nice man."

The lunch was a very happy meal and, in particular, Dora was 大いに impressed with Larose. He seemed such a happy man, and, so 十分な of fun, he kept everyone in smiles and laughter the whole time. With some 誘発するing he 関係のある some of the reminiscences of his 探偵，刑事 days and something of a few of the 事例／患者s he had 扱うd.

"But you must 収容する／認める, Mr. Larose," 発言／述べるd the K.C. with a grim smile, "that when you were working in the 犯罪の 調査 Department you were regarded as the bad boy of the Yard. Wasn't it ありふれた knowledge that いつかs when you had run a 犯罪の to earth, before 手渡すing him over for 罰, you would first try him yourself and then, if you 設立する extenuating circumstances, 抑える 決定的な 証拠 and let him go 解放する／自由な?"

"No, no," laughed Larose merrily, "I was not やめる as bad as that." He looked amused. "It might have been that at times I did turn a blind 注目する，もくろむ to something I had 設立する out, but certainly never when it was against the 利益／興味s of the community to do so. No, I never let an evil man escape the consequences of his wrong-doing."

"But you were always a sentimentalist, weren't you?" 固執するd the K.C.

Larose hesitated. "Not 正確に／まさに," he said, "but upon some occasions I 収容する／認める I have turned aside the harshness of the 法律. Now I'll give you an example. Many years ago I was 調査／捜査するing a 事例／患者 of 殺人 where a man had been 設立する 発射 in a lonely road some miles from his house. We 設立する out he had been of a most evil character, a brute and a blackguard in almost every way. Not married two years to a good and gentle woman of a gentle disposition, he had 扱う／治療するd her with the 最大の brutality and made her life a 悲惨. Not only did he flaunt his other loves before her, but to strike her was nothing to him. It was ありふれた knowledge all over their little town that a week before he was 発射 he had 削減（する） her lip open and given her a 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむ."

"Ah, now we have the 必然的な woman," exclaimed the K.C. gleefully, "and, of course, the 感情 will follow!"

"The only excuse for him," went on Larose, ignoring the interruption, "was that he'd once been in a mental 亡命 for two years. It had been kept very secret, however, and he had even married without telling his poor wife. 井戸／弁護士席, of course, when he was 殺人d the 苦しむing wife was the first 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う, but fortunately she had an unassailable アリバイ. Still, for all that, as a 事柄 of 決まりきった仕事 the house and all her 所有／入手s were gone through 完全に."

He smiled. "I was glad that, as I had 推定する／予想するd, nothing 罪を負わせるing was 設立する. However, in a drawer in her desk I （機の）カム upon a dance programme of a hospital subscription ball. It was about three months old and, scanning 負かす／撃墜する it, I saw she had had three dances with someone whose 初期のs were—井戸／弁護士席, we'll call them A.B.C. I was 利益／興味d at once and scouted 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to find everyone she knew whose surname 開始するd with a C."

He nodded. "I soon 設立する a Mr. C. whose Christian 指名するs 開始するd with A.B. No, he wasn't her lover. I made 確かな of that. When I questioned her about him the only feeling she showed was curiosity why I should be 利益／興味d in him."

"But the gentle sex can be very subtle and evasive," 発言／述べるd the K.C., shaking his 長，率いる doubtfully.

"I know that," agreed Larose, "and I was 井戸／弁護士席 upon my guard not to be taken in. However, all my life's training told me she was perfectly innocent there. He was only a passing 知識 and she had not seen him since that dance. Still, I went to call upon the man himself and, telling him who I was, asked him point blank what 取引 he had ever had with the 殺人d man. Then I was pretty 確かな at once that the long 発射 I had made had 攻撃する，衝突する bang in the very middle of the 的. Taken 完全に by surprise, he was the very picture of びっくり仰天 and 犯罪. In his amazement at my coming to him he looked as if he were going to faint. The whole thing had been as 平易な as 狙撃 at a sitting rabbit."

Larose paused for a few moments and then shrugged his shoulders. "Now what, in the best 利益／興味s of the community, was I to do? An unknown person had rid the world of a 完全に bad man and I thought I knew who the 殺し屋 was. He was a nice, manly-looking and clean-living young fellow who had done good service in the war, and I was 確かな that if he had committed the 殺人 the only 動機 for his 罪，犯罪 would have been a quixotic sympathy for the 拷問d woman. So I ask you, what was I to do? Should I have hounded him 負かす／撃墜する or kept my 疑惑s to myself and let others find out if they could?"

"You should have hounded him 負かす／撃墜する, as you call it," growled the K.C. "You were 存在 paid to do it and your 義務 was やめる （疑いを）晴らす."

Larose sighed. "井戸／弁護士席, I didn't do it. I got from him a most unsatisfactory アリバイ, had a little 雑談（する） with him and bade him good-bye. In parting, I told him that as a 事柄 of 決まりきった仕事 his rooms would probably be searched and advised him laughingly that if he'd got a ピストル he'd better get rid of it before the 捜査員s （機の）カム."

"You did やめる 権利, Mr. Larose," exclaimed Mrs. Rayneham approvingly. "After all, you had only 疑惑s about him and you might have been やめる wrong."

"正確に／まさに," nodded Larose, "only 疑惑s and, as you say, I might have been やめる wrong."

Lord Merrildon, who had listened most interestedly to Larose's story, now asked curiously, "And did you ever happen to see this young man again?"

"Oh, yes," nodded Larose, "about two years afterwards, one Sunday afternoon upon the Parade at Brighton. He was 押し進めるing a perambulator and"—he smiled all over his 直面する—"the lady who was walking beside him had been the wife of the man who was 発射. They looked very happy."

A moment's silence followed and then a ripple of laughter went 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, in which they all joined.

The next morning the visit of Lord and Lady Merrildon （機の）カム to an end and, in parting, both 表明するd to Dora the hope that they would be seeing her again. "You must come and stay with us, dear," said the wife. "We'll send you a special 招待, and be sure you don't make any excuse. Our Saffron Waldon house always seems so lonely without children's 発言する／表明するs."

The に引き続いて Friday Mr. Rayneham brought two friends 負かす／撃墜する with him for the week-end and by 広大な／多数の／重要な good fortune it happened that Dora was in the lounge with young 中尉／大尉／警部補 Jocelyn when they arrived and through one of the windows saw them getting out of their car.

To her horror she recognised one of them as 存在 the West End doctor who was called in by Madame to help her out when any of her 患者s were in danger because of what she had done to them.

She always thought afterwards that it was one of the most terrible moments of her life. What she had always been so dreading was 現実に coming to pass! She was 会合 someone who had known her when she was associated with Madame de Roche and she was sure, from his helping the woman, that he would be a 完全に bad character himself, just the very type who would 訴える手段／行楽地 to ゆすり，恐喝ing if ever he had any 持つ／拘留する over anyone.

One hope, however, leapt like 雷 into her mind, and that was he would not recognise her. After all, he had only 始める，決める 注目する，もくろむs upon her a few times—the last 存在 nine to ten years ago.

Mr. Rayneham, bringing the two men into the lounge, introduced them. "Lady Stroud," he said smilingly, "this is Dr. Chalda Simeon, and this is Mr. Beverley—both old friends of 地雷."

With a 広大な／多数の／重要な 成果／努力 Dora pulled herself together and 屈服するd distantly, her hopes leaping high when the doctor returned her 屈服する 慣例的に, with no 調印する of any 承認 in his 直面する. She thought he had altered very little and looked, just as he used to, the suave 井戸／弁護士席-mannered professional man.

All went 井戸／弁護士席 that evening, and when it happened he was brought in 接触する with her he could not have been more respectful and polite. Drawn once as her partner at 橋（渡しをする）, she 公式文書，認めるd, as she had done in the old days, how good-looking he was—all except for his 注目する，もくろむs, which were 始める，決める too の近くに together and had, she thought, an unpleasant, cunning look. She went to bed that night やめる happy and 安心させるd. No, he had not recognised her! She was やめる 安全な!

The next morning, however, she got a horrid shock. Seated on the terrace, she was watching her two children at play upon the lawn just below her when Dr. Simeon （機の）カム up and with no 儀式 plumped himself 負かす／撃墜する beside her. His very first words almost froze her 血 in her びっくり仰天.

"井戸／弁護士席, little 行方不明になる Dane that was," he said, with what she thought was a horrid, evil smile, "you've done very 井戸／弁護士席 for yourself, 港／避難所't you? From 補助装置ing in 違法な 操作／手術s with that unfortunate Madame de Roche to becoming Lady Stroud with any 量 of money is a 広大な／多数の／重要な 解除する up, isn't it?" He 屈服するd ironically. "I congratulate you."

Dora was 絶対 astounded. Her mouth went 乾燥した，日照りの, she swallowed hard and was afraid she was going to faint.

Dr. Simeon went on conversationally, "Yes, you were very clever, weren't you? How you managed to 避ける the police I cannot for the life of me understand. They were looking everywhere for you with a 罰金 徹底的に捜す."

Dora knew it would be useless to 否定する her 身元, and, 製図／抽選 a long breath, 設立する her speech. "That's an untruth," she said shakily. "They didn't want me. I had done nothing wrong. I had had nothing to do with that vile woman's horrid work."

"Nothing to do with it!" exclaimed the doctor as if in 広大な／多数の／重要な surprise. He lied glibly. "Why—she 自白するd everything and told the police you were her 権利 手渡す and brought her in lots of 事例／患者s. They 問題／発行するd a 令状 to 逮捕（する） you at once, and as far as I know it is still out to bring you in." He shook his 長，率いる warningly. "Remember the police have long memories. They never forget."

Dora 設立する her courage. "I don't believe a word you say," she retorted 堅固に. "That woman had no 推論する／理由 to tell such lies about me and I am sure she didn't. If she had turned against anyone it would have been against you because of the hundreds of 続けざまに猛撃するs she had paid you and your 辞退するing to help her when she had most need of you."

"A-ah!" exclaimed the doctor 即時に. "And for you to know that shows how 厚い you were with her. You must have been or she wouldn't have told you anything about me." He looked amused. "But that gives you no 持つ／拘留する upon me, young lady, for of course I should always 否定する it and no one has any proof."

He regarded her 緊張するd and white 直面する. "But there, there, don't look so troubled," he went on ingratiatingly. "I shall never give you away. You can depend upon that." He looked amused. "However, it will be nice for me to have a 豊富な friend like you. Besides, I've always admired you and I see you've lost 非，不，無 of your good looks." He broke off suddenly. "But where's your husband? Don't you get on 井戸／弁護士席 with him? How is it he's not here with you? I should have thought——" but at that moment one of the other guests appeared upon the terrace and he stopped speaking.

Dora passed a horrible day. Verily, she was in the toils, with all her happy little world 宙返り／暴落するing about her! Richard was not coming 負かす／撃墜する that week-end and she felt she had no one to 保護する her.

However, she pulled herself resolutely together again, and tried hard to believe they were all untruths that Dr. Simeon had told her. Madame had never lied to the police about her, no 令状 had been 問題／発行するd and they had never been looking for her! Still, at the 支援する of her mind lurked the dreadful 恐れる that something of what Dr. Simeon said might be true, that the police had 問題／発行するd a 令状 and that it had never been 孤立した. Then if that were so she was 完全に in his 力／強力にする, and the thought of what he might do next terrified her.

All that day she 避けるd him as much as possible, taking good care never to be caught alone with him. However, in the evening, の直前に dinner, he outmanoeuvred her. She was alone in the dining-room arranging the flowers upon the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and did not hear him enter the room. Approaching on tiptoe behind her, the first thing she knew of his presence was when, pulling her の近くに to him and pinioning her 武器 to her 味方するs, with his 解放する／自由な 手渡す he pulled her 直面する 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and began kissing her ardently upon the lips.

Struggling furiously, she 後継するd in 解放する／自由なing herself and 押し進めるd him violently away. Looking very amused, he asked smilingly, "In which part of the house is your room? Do you have any of the children sleeping with you?"

"You beast! You coward!" she panted. "I'd like to kill you!"

He laughed merrily, but as she looked as if she were going to spit at him, he 追加するd warningly, "安定した, 安定した now, and remember that unexecuted 令状." He shook his 長，率いる. "I'm never too good-tempered at any time."

But whatever retort Dora would have given was 削減（する） short by the 入り口 of one of the maids, and with a wave of his 手渡す to Dora, as if they were upon the best of 条件, the doctor made his 出口 from the room.

It was a long time before Dora could get to sleep that night. Strange to say, she was no longer 脅すd at what Dr. Simeon would do, her only thought now 存在 how to outwit him. In a clever sort of way he had shown his 手渡す a bit more after dinner and she had a pretty good idea that his next move would be to 試みる／企てる to だまし取る money. Playing at the same （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する with him at 橋（渡しをする）, though this time not as his partner, he had 発言／述べるd jokingly to the company 一般に that he must have a good 勝利，勝つ that night as he happened to be short of money.

"A thousand 続けざまに猛撃するs is my 最小限," he had laughed, "but how I'm going to 勝利，勝つ it with points at half a 栄冠を与える a hundred I can hardly see," and the others 現在の had thought it a good joke.

As Dora lay wide awake in bed she clenched her teeth viciously. She was not going to be ゆすり，恐喝d! She would not 支払う／賃金 him a penny! Rather she would tell her husband everything, or, better still, perhaps, she would go to Lord Merrildon and lay everything before him. She thought of the 肉親，親類d yet strong 直面する of the 裁判官, and was sure he would help her. So high up in his calling, too, it was 確かな he would have 影響（力） with the 当局 and a word from him to the 長，指導者 Commissioner of Police, if indeed it were needed, might put everything 権利 at once. After all, she was no 有罪の party to be 保護物，者d.

The next day she never 許すd herself to be alone anywhere about the house, and if she had not been feeling so upset Dr. Simeon's many 試みる／企てるs to get speech with her would have been amusing. Then, to her dreadful びっくり仰天, she heard it について言及するd casually at lunch that he was not going away on the morrow, but instead was 長引かせるing his stay until the に引き続いて week-end.

She was so 苦しめるd at the thought of 存在 followed about for a whole week by her persecutor that she was half minded to 削減（する） short her stay. However, she could think of no 適する excuse, and in the end 解決するd to （犯罪の）一味 Richard up and ask him to come 負かす／撃墜する on the morrow. Then she would tell him everything and he would know what best to do. Most likely, she thought, he would go and lay everything before the 長，指導者 Commissioner of Police himself.

So much relieved in mind at what she was ーするつもりであるing to do, after they had all had afternoon tea in the lounge, she said to her hostess that she would like to go for a quick sharp walk to get rid of a 頭痛 she had got. It was to the 地位，任命する office in the little village about a mile away she was meaning to go. She knew where she would be able to catch Richard about that time and preferred to phone away from the Manor, so that by no chance should anyone overhear her telling him the 事柄 was most 緊急の.

"Yes, dear, by all means go," said Mrs. Rayneham, "and while you are about it, you might 同様に take the letters 負かす／撃墜する to the village. It will save anyone going 負かす／撃墜する in the car."

So making sure Dr. Simeon was nowhere about to see her leave the house, Dora started off in a short 削減（する） by a path through a small 支持を得ようと努めるd 近づく the house, which would bring her out upon the high road only about half a mile from the village.

Congratulating herself upon having so 首尾よく 避けるd the doctor, she would have been terrified had she been aware she was now running into the very danger she so 恐れるd, for only a few minutes 以前 Mrs. Rayneham had sent Dr. Simeon along the same lonely little path she was now 横断するing.

Two 強硬派s had of late been playing havoc with the Manor chickens and it was known they were often to be seen 近づく a small pond 一連の会議、交渉／完成する which the path circled toward the end of the 支持を得ようと努めるd. They were very 用心深い birds and no one as yet had been able to get 近づく them with a 発射 gun. Dr. Simeon, however, was という評判の to be very good with a ライフル銃／探して盗む and, now 武装した with a small rook one, he had come to the pond to see if he could get a 発射 at the marauders.

Arriving there only just before Dora, the doctor laid 負かす／撃墜する his ライフル銃／探して盗む to light a cigarette and then proceeded to scout 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to 位置を示す a suitable place where he could sit comfortably to を待つ the coming of the 強硬派s who were supposed to visit the pond about that time of the afternoon. He was 推定する／予想するing to have to wait about an hour.

Suddenly he caught sight of someone moving between the trees and to his 広大な／多数の／重要な delight saw it was Dora coming up the path. Throwing away his cigarette he placed his ライフル銃／探して盗む upon the ground, and, slipping behind a big tree, waited until she had drawn level with him before springing out to catch 持つ／拘留する of her.

However, he was just the fraction of a second too late, as Dora had become aware of some movement behind her and turned just in time to see him not half a dozen feet away. With a startled cry she sprang 今後 and started to run for dear life. A few 雷 moments' thoughts, however, 納得させるd her she had no hope of escaping, and that therefore it would be better to 直面する her pursuer and do her best in the struggle that she was sure would 続いて起こる.

So she stopped dead in her 跡をつけるs and, in turning はっきりと, her 注目する，もくろむs fell upon the little rook ライフル銃／探して盗む on the ground. She snatched it up and pointed it at the doctor who had stopped also only a few paces from her.

"You come nearer," she panted, "and I'll shoot you," and, without taking her 注目する，もくろむs off him, she felt for and pulled up the 誘発する／引き起こす.

Dr. Simeon smiled a craftily vicious smile. "You daren't, my charmer," he said confidently. "殺人 would mean hanging and not just perhaps a couple of years' 監禁，拘置 if the police now find out where you are." He took out a cigarette and lighted it. "Come—let's have a little talk together. Don't be afraid. I won't touch you again. I know I oughtn't to have kissed you last night, but you looked so pretty I couldn't help it. No, I don't really want anything from you. It was only my fun last night when I spoke of that thousand 続けざまに猛撃するs. I make plenty of money and——" but, thinking he had thrown her off her guard, he darted 今後 and grabbed 持つ／拘留する of the ライフル銃／探して盗む.

For a few seconds a 猛烈な／残忍な struggle 続いて起こるd, but, 解放する／自由なing his 支配する upon the ライフル銃／探して盗む, Dora thrust the muzzle into his chest and pulled the 誘発する／引き起こす. 即時に his 手渡すs dropped from her, and with a 深い groan he 衝突，墜落d on to the ground. The 前線 of his light flannel jacket became crimsoned over in 血.

Panting hard and as white as death herself, Dora stood over him. Then from behind her （機の）カム a shout, "Bravo! 井戸／弁護士席 done!" and 中尉／大尉／警部補 Jocelyn （機の）カム running up. "I （機の）カム as quick as I could," he panted, "but I was just too late." He bent 負かす／撃墜する and turned the 団体／死体 over. "But, by Jove, you've killed him. You've 発射 him over the heart."

"He attacked me," choked Dora, her 発言する／表明する 激しい with 涙／ほころびs. "I was only defending myself."

"Of course you were!" exclaimed the 中尉／大尉／警部補. "I saw it all. It wasn't your fault."

"But, my God," wailed Dora, "I shall be tried for 殺人! The police will take me up."

"But my 証拠 will 証明する it was an 事故," 慰安d Jocelyn at once. "You won't get any 罰 for it. No 陪審／陪審員団 would find you 有罪の."

"But the スキャンダル," went on Dora. The 涙／ほころびs rolled 負かす／撃墜する her cheeks. "It will kill me."

"He must have been mad to （性的に）いたずらする you as he did," said the 中尉／大尉／警部補. "Why—he didn't know you until the day before yesterday!"

She shook her 長，率いる. "He did, Mr. Jocelyn," she choked. "He met me years ago and made out he'd got 持つ／拘留する of some discreditable secret in my life. He was going to ゆすり，恐喝 me."

"Whew!" whistled the 中尉／大尉／警部補. "Then I'm glad you killed him." He frowned. "You were 会合 him here by 任命?"

"Oh, no," replied Dora, "it was only by chance that I （機の）カム upon him here. I was going 負かす／撃墜する into the village. Last night he 掴むd 持つ／拘留する of me and kissed me by 軍隊. All to-day I've been keeping out of his way as much as possible." Her 涙／ほころびs （機の）カム again. "Oh, the publicity and スキャンダル of it will kill me."

The 中尉／大尉／警部補 was thinking hard. "I say," he asked, "did anyone see you come on to this path?"

Dora shook her 長，率いる. "Not that I know of. There was no one about."

Young Jocelyn's 注目する，もくろむs glistened. "Then why let anybody know you met him? Keep the whole thing dark." He pointed to the pond. "I'll throw him in there, with the ライフル銃／探して盗む just 近づく him. Then if the 団体／死体's ever 設立する—perhaps it'll be thought he fell over that high bank and 発射 himself accidentally. Come, it's 価値（がある） trying, anyhow."

"Oh, but will it be 安全な?" asked Dora tremulously.

"I don't see why it shouldn't be," was the reply. "Then no one need ever know you met him here. Now don't you be afraid. I'm sure it'll be the best way out of all your worry."

Always of a 迅速な and impetuous disposition, not arguing the 事柄 any その上の, he laid 持つ／拘留する of the 団体／死体 by the heels and, dragging it over the rather high bank, rolled it into the pond. The ライフル銃／探して盗む he dropped into the water, の近くに to the 団体／死体.

Then, linking his arm in Dora's, as her 脚s were trembling so violently, he proceeded to walk her quickly up the path に向かって the main road.

"Now no one must know you （機の）カム by this path," he enjoined はっきりと. "See? You （機の）カム by way of the 運動 and you're going 支援する the same way. If we're ever asked any questions about anything we'll say I met you in the 運動 and we went for a little walk together. We'll go along it now for a little way in the hope that somebody may see us."

"I was going to the 地位，任命する office," 滞るd Dora. "Mrs. Rayneham gave me these letters here in my jacket pocket to 地位，任命する."

"Then we'll go there together," said Jocelyn, "just as if nothing had happened. We have got to 行為／法令／行動する all along as if nothing has happened."

"But when he doesn't come 支援する," choked Dora, "they'll search everywhere and are bound to find his 団体／死体."

"And what does it 事柄 if they do," asked the 中尉／大尉／警部補 confidently, "as long as there is no 証拠 to link it up with you? No one here need ever know you had met the blackguard before." He frowned. "By the by, what was the 持つ／拘留する he made out he had over you?"

Dora told him, and he scoffed contemptuously. "A thousand to one it was all a 嘘（をつく）. There was no 令状 out for you! If there had been, your 指名する would have been published in the newspapers and the police would have soon got 持つ／拘留する of you."

They walked 負かす／撃墜する to the 地位，任命する office and 地位，任命するd the letters, Dora now giving no その上の thought to phoning up Richard. Sauntering 支援する leisurely, the whole countryside was so 法外なd in the peace and quietness of an ordinary Sunday evening that it seemed altogether impossible to her that she could have been so lately 伴う／関わるd in such a dreadful 悲劇. Her agitation died 負かす／撃墜する, her 神経s no longer troubled her and she was able to look up at her companion with a smile.

"No, we shan't be 設立する out," she said やめる calmly. "As you say, we've only got to sit tight and we shall be all 権利."

"That's it!" exclaimed Jocelyn enthusiastically. "I knew you were a girl with plenty of courage or I shouldn't have let myself in for what I have." He frowned. "I'm awfully sorry I shan't be with you to buck you up during the 早期に part of the week, but I must be up in Town to give my 証拠 in that 衝突／不一致 事例／患者 I told you about." A thought struck him and he asked, "When does your husband come 負かす／撃墜する?"

"Next week-end," replied Dora, "unless, of course, I send to him before."

"And you won't send for him," he said 堅固に. "Don't worry him, at any 率 until things have settled 負かす／撃墜する a bit. I'd better be here when he comes and break the news to him."

"No, I'll tell him," said Dora quickly. "I'll tell him everything."

"Then let me be 現在の when you do," 勧めるd Jocelyn. "I can put things in a good light. After all, I saw it was an 事故."

"It wasn't," sighed Dora. "I knew what I was doing 井戸／弁護士席 enough."

"You didn't," retorted the 中尉／大尉／警部補. "You were far too strung-up to think of any consequences." He frowned. "But I say—what sort of man is your husband?"

Dora sighed again. "He's very conscientious, and that makes me afraid he'll think we're doing wrong."

"Hum!" 発言／述べるd Jocelyn. "Then it is certainly I who must talk to him, because, as I've told you, I'm up to the neck in it as much as you."

A few minutes before dinner when most of the guests were having cocktails in the lounge, Mrs. Rayneham 発言／述べるd upon how late Dr. Simeon was in getting 支援する. "I sent him," she said, "along the path through the home 支持を得ようと努めるd to try to get those 強硬派s which have been coming after my chickens." She turned to Dora. "You didn't see anything of him, did you, when you went to the 地位，任命する office?"

Young Jocelyn answered quickly for her. "I went with Lady Stroud to 地位，任命する those letters. I overtook her in the 運動. No, we didn't see anything of the doctor."

"How tiresome of him," exclaimed Mrs. Rayneham. "He knows how punctual we always are."

Her cheerful mood continuing, Dora had shaken off all of her nervousness. The 信用／信任 of the young 中尉／大尉／警部補 was 感染性の and he seemed so sure that everything would be all 権利. Still, if the truth did become known, she told herself, she would not be 非難するd as after all she was only defending herself and, as 中尉／大尉／警部補 Jocelyn had said, the 狙撃 must have been an 事故. No one would 告発する／非難する her of 殺人，大当り Dr. Simeon deliberately.

Dinner over with no 外見 of the doctor, Mr. Rayneham with some of the men 訪問者s, 含むing the 中尉／大尉／警部補, made up a search party and went out to see if they could find anything of the 行方不明の man. It was a 有望な moonlight night and, taking no lanterns with them, they 横断するd the whole length of the path through the 支持を得ようと努めるd as far as the main road. Of course, however, they 設立する no 調印する of him, and returning home, Mr. Rayneham rang up the village policeman, but the latter agreed with him nothing more could be done until the morning.

The next day the search was 再開するd, now under the direction of the police sergeant from the little town of East Dereham, but no trace of the doctor was 設立する. His flat in Earl's 法廷，裁判所 was rung up, but his housekeeper—he was a bachelor and she managed the flat for him—could give no （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）. She did, however, say he was a rather forgetful and eccentric man and occasionally had absented himself from home without giving her any notice.

In the 合間, 中尉／大尉／警部補 Jocelyn having gone up to Town, Dora was losing something of her 信用／信任 and beginning to think she had made a 広大な／多数の／重要な mistake in having 許すd herself to be induced to hush the 事柄 up. She せねばならない have made out to them that she had come upon Dr. Simeon lying dead by the path in the 支持を得ようと努めるd, or she せねばならない have returned to the Manor and not said a word to anyone about having seen him.

On the whole, she had begun to feel a little angry with 中尉／大尉／警部補 Jocelyn for having swept her off her feet and 行為／法令／行動するd so あわてて upon the 刺激（する） of the moment. She began to worry herself upon the Monday night, and by the に引き続いて morning felt 前向きに／確かに ill. Her hostess noticed it and asked if anything were the 事柄 with her. She replied smilingly that all she had got was a bad 頭痛.

"井戸／弁護士席, what about going for a nice ride in my little sport's car?" said Mrs. Rayneham. "With the hood 負かす／撃墜する, you'd get a good blow of fresh 空気／公表する. You could 運動 over to Carmel Abbey. Mrs. Larose left her gloves here the other day and I 約束d to 地位，任命する them on to her, but with all this worry about Dr. Simeon I forgot all about it. Yes, you can take the gloves and tell Mr. Larose about the trouble we are in. I'm sure he'll be 大いに 利益／興味d."

Dora's heart gave a big bound. Go to see Mr. Larose! Why—why hadn't she thought of it? He would be the very man to help her! Oh, what a heaven-sent help he would be! Instinct told her he was a man anyone could 信用 暗黙に.

"I'm sorry I can't come with you," went on Mrs. Rayneham, "but with this dreadful mystery about Dr. Simeon I must be here if the police come from Norwich. You wouldn't mind going by yourself, would you?"

Dora felt better at once. "No, of course not," she said. "Besides, I'll take Nurse and the children with me for company. They love モーターing."

"井戸／弁護士席, you go and get ready," said Mrs. Rayneham, "and I'll have the car brought out and see if it's やめる all 権利 for the 旅行. In the 合間 I'll （犯罪の）一味 up Mrs. Larose to tell her you're coming."

In いっそう少なく than a ４半期/4分の1 of an hour the 大いに relieved Dora was 負かす／撃墜する again in the lounge with her two children and the nurse. "I rang up the Abbey," said Mrs. Rayneham, "but couldn't get either Mr. or Mrs. Larose. The butler said Mrs. Larose was away, in Town, but that Mr. Larose would be in any minute and at home for the 残り／休憩（する） of the day." She laughed. "I didn't say you were coming, so you'll be able to have a nice little flirtation with him all on your own."

It was only a twenty-mile 運動 to Carmel Abbey and Dora's heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 tremulously when she pulled up the car by the 抱擁する and 大規模な door, hundreds of years old. "From Mrs. Rayneham," she explained when, in answer to her （犯罪の）一味, the butler appeared.

Leaving the nurse and children in the car, she followed him into the 熟考する／考慮する where Larose was seated at a desk. The latter at once （機の）カム 今後 smilingly to 会合，会う her and they shook 手渡すs.

Then, with the door の近くにd behind them, cutting short Larose's words of 迎える／歓迎するing, she burst out chokingly, "Mr. Larose, I have come to you for advice. Two days ago I killed a man. He attacked me and had been ーするつもりであるing to ゆすり，恐喝 me. His 団体／死体 lies hidden in a pond. Should I give myself up to the police, or say nothing in the hope that I may not be 設立する out? You remember me, don't you? We met at Blackston Manor a little while ago."

All on the instant the 直面する of Larose had become the very picture of amazement. His jaw had dropped and his 注目する，もくろむs had opened wide. For the moment he did not seem to be able to take in this 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の 告示 from the beautiful and aristocratic-looking young woman standing before him.

"Yes," went on Dora tremulously, "he attacked me on the path through a lonely 支持を得ようと努めるd and I 発射 him with his own ライフル銃／探して盗む. I think it was partly an 事故." 涙／ほころびs filled her 注目する，もくろむs. "I've come to you to know what I せねばならない do."

Larose had 回復するd very quickly. "Now don't cry," he said kindly. "Just sit 負かす／撃墜する and tell me all about it," and, taking her arm, he led her to a 議長，司会を務める in 前線 of his desk. "Ah, one moment," he said ちらりと見ることing out of the window. "I see you've brought your little ones with you."

"Yes, and that's their nurse with them," said Dora faintly.

"井戸／弁護士席, I'll take them to my housekeeper," he said, "and she'll amuse them in the play-room. I'm sorry my wife's away."

He was gone about two minutes and then bustled 支援する into the room. "Now we can have our little talk," he said briskly, seating himself again behind his desk. "Take your time. We shall not be interrupted. Let me hear how it all began."

So Dora told her story, beginning with her work at the 学校／設ける, going on to her marriage and the happy years she had spent with her husband, the coming of Dr. Simeon to Blackston Manor the previous Friday, his kissing of her by 軍隊 the next evening, her unfortunate 会合 with him in the 支持を得ようと努めるd the に引き続いて day and all that happened afterwards.

"I'm sure now that I did very wrong," she went on, "in deciding to try to keep myself out of everything, but I was terrified that any publicity would draw attention to myself, with the police learning that I was the Dora Dane for whom that 令状 had perhaps been 問題／発行するd all those years ago. Young Mr. Jocelyn was most 同情的な. His 推論する／理由 for advising me to 行為／法令／行動する as I did was because he was afraid it would be bound to come out that I had known Dr. Simeon before."

"And I think the 中尉／大尉／警部補 was 権利 there," nodded Larose judicially, "for you mustn't forget you have those three enemies, that horrible Madame, her cousin and her brother. It is hardly probable that if you had 認める you had 発射 him accidentally one or the other of them would not have read about it in the newspapers and, as likely as not, some pressman would have got 持つ／拘留する of a photograph of yours and published it. Then where would you have been if, out of spite, one of these people had written to the police?"

"But we せねばならない have left the 団体／死体 lying where it was," said Dora, "for someone else to find."

Larose shook his 長，率いる. "What about the fingermarks on the ライフル銃／探して盗む?" he asked. "There were sure to have been some of yours on it."

"We might have wiped them off," said Dora. "Mr. Jocelyn would certainly have thought of that."

Larose smiled. "Worse still! No fingermarks on the ライフル銃／探して盗む would have pointed to 殺人 at once, and would have 強めるd the 利益／興味 and publicity in every newspaper in the kingdom. Then all the guests at the Manor would have come into the limelight, and their 指紋s taken at once. Don't forget your Christian 指名する is not a very ありふれた one, and remember, too, what you have just told me about that cousin of Madame's seeing you getting into your car that day in Regent Street." He smiled. "A 罰金 and expensive-looking car, I am sure, and you as elegantly dressed as you are now! So she would be pretty sure you were living in good circumstances. Then the two 指名するs Dora, Lady Stroud, and Dr. Simeon together might have made her think and, just on the chance and out of spite, as I say, she might have written to the police."

"And what do you advise me to do?" asked Dora piteously.

Larose looked troubled. "井戸／弁護士席, it's a little late in the day to ask me that now, isn't it, seeing that you seem to have already decided for yourself? If you were going to speak up you せねばならない have done so at once."

"But I'll do whatever you tell me to," choked Dora. "What do you think is best?"

Larose regarded her very 厳粛に. "If you come to me to ask me that in my capacity as a 司法（官） of the Peace, most people would unhesitatingly say that of course I せねばならない tell you to give yourself up at once to the police and make a clean breast of everything."

Dora's 直面する went white as death. "Then you 持つ／拘留する out no hope for me?" she asked tremblingly. Her 発言する／表明する 会社／堅いd a little. "But need I bring in 中尉／大尉／警部補 Jocelyn? It will 廃虚 his whole career."

Larose held up his 手渡す. "Wait a minute," he said. "Don't be so quick." He smiled his pleasant, friendly smile. "I said if you （機の）カム to me as a 司法（官） of the Peace, but you don't come to me as such, do you? You come to me 個人として, as a friend?"

Dora nodded. "I didn't know you were a 治安判事. I （機の）カム to you because that story you told us at lunch the other day showed how 同情的な you could be."

"正確に／まさに!" commented Larose. He made a grimace. "I only brought up that I was a 司法（官） of the Peace because if I tell you to keep silence and say nothing I want you to realise I am joining you in a 共謀 against the 法律 and that"—he shook his 長，率いる—"would be rather a serious 事柄 for a 治安判事 if it became known."

"Oh, I'll never say anything," broke in Dora quickly. "I 約束 you I'll——"

"I know that," said Larose. "I feel I can 信用 you. There's any 量 of courage in those so 井戸／弁護士席-spaced 注目する，もくろむs of yours." He spoke briskly. "No, under the circumstances I think the best course for you now is to go on 説 nothing, for if you speak now after these two days of silence, it will rather 示唆する 犯罪 in some way. The police will argue you must have had some very strong 推論する／理由 for hiding the 団体／死体—a much stronger 推論する／理由 than that by an 事故 you had 原因（となる）d his death. If you made out you were struggling in self-defence when the ライフル銃／探して盗む went off they would not be likely to credit that Dr. Simeon made such a vicious and unprovoked attack upon you after いっそう少なく than a two days' acquaintanceship."

"Then you think they'd guess I knew him before?" asked Dora shakily.

"Most certainly!" nodded Larose. "So they'd 調査（する） 支援する into your past life and I'm afraid there's little they wouldn't be able to find out. Once started upon a 追跡する, you have no idea how 患者 and 徹底的な Scotland Yard can be."

Dora looked upon the 瀬戸際 of 涙／ほころびs and he went on quickly. "That's the dark 味方する of things, but the 有望な 味方する is—if you continue to keep silent you may never come into their 疑惑s at all. I don't for a moment see why you should, and from all you tell me his death may be put 負かす／撃墜する to an 事故, with the 狙撃 self-（打撃，刑罰などを）与えるd."

"Then you think they'll find the 団体／死体?" asked Dora.

"Yes, and within the next day or two—直接／まっすぐに his 見えなくなる is considered mysterious enough for the Norwich 探偵，刑事s to be put on the 事例／患者. With Mrs. Rayneham 知らせるing them he was going 近づく that pond after those 強硬派s they're bound to go there almost at once."

After they talked for a long while, Dora 静めるd 負かす／撃墜する and was beginning to feel much more 希望に満ちた again.

"Now you go 支援する to the Manor," said Larose in 結論, "and carry on as if you are not unduly 利益／興味d in the 事柄. Steel yourself to be all 用意が出来ている for the 団体／死体 存在 設立する. 召喚する up all your courage and say to yourself, '井戸／弁護士席, if the worse comes to the worst, and I have to tell everything, it will only be the スキャンダル I shall have to 直面する, for, with my tale told, no 陪審／陪審員団 will 罪人／有罪を宣告する me of anything more wrong than trying to hide the 団体／死体.'"

He patted her kindly upon the shoulder. "Another thing. I'll keep 井戸／弁護士席 in touch with Mrs. Rayneham to learn everything that is going on and come over at once and take a 手渡す if I think you are in any danger." He laughed. "It's 井戸／弁護士席 known in Norfolk that I'm always butting in on any mystery that is 利益／興味ing."

CHAPTER VIII. — THE MISSING KERCHIEF

IT was 井戸／弁護士席 that Dora had been so 井戸／弁護士席 ブイ，浮標d up with hope by her interview with Larose, as upon her return to the Manor just in time for lunch she was to realise that the curtain was indeed 存在 rung up for the 贈呈 of the 演劇 in which she might unhappily be cast for a most dreadful part.

Mrs. Rayneham had had several 訪問者s, reporters who had come 負かす／撃墜する from two London newspapers to work up an 利益／興味ing story for their readers about the 行方不明の doctor, and a police sergeant from Norwich, …を伴ってd by two plain-着せる／賦与するs 探偵，刑事s.

"The newspaper men were most inquisitive," she said, "and I had to choke them off when they asked what I considered a lot of unnecessary questions. They 現実に 手配中の，お尋ね者 to know the 指名する of all the 訪問者s staying here, and without asking my 許可 took photographs of the house."

"But you didn't give them our 指名するs?" asked Dora, with an uncomfortable feeling at the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 of her stomach.

"Certainly not," replied Mrs. Rayneham, "and I took care they didn't get any chance of pumping the servants. I thought they were altogether much too 押し進めるing, やめる different from the 探偵，刑事s from Norwich. They （機の）カム with Constable Wicks from the village and were most polite and so 同情的な. When I had told them everything they said that in the circumstances the doctor was not likely to be 行方不明の for long and that they would soon have news of him."

Sure enough news （機の）カム through that same afternoon, and it was of a terrible nature. The doctor's 団体／死体 had been 設立する in the very pond to which he had been directed to go to get a 発射 at the 強硬派s.

It appeared that the 探偵，刑事s had started straight away to search along the path through the 支持を得ようと努めるd and, coming to the pond, one of them had looked over the bank and at once called out that there was a 団体／死体 there. Throwing themselves 負かす／撃墜する 傾向がある to get their 注目する，もくろむs as の近くに as possible to the surface of the water, they could see that it was that of a man. The pond was so shallow that the 団体／死体 was only just covered over. The 直面する looked a dreadful colour, with its 注目する，もくろむs の近くにd and a wisp of hair 追跡するing across its forehead.

"God!" exclaimed the sergeant. "It's the man we want 権利 enough!" and becoming きびきびした and 商売／仕事-like, he 問題／発行するd quick orders to one of the 探偵，刑事s. "Go 支援する into the village and get in touch with Norwich at once. Tell the superintendent that of course we're not touching anything until he comes. You wait in the village and bring him along here."

A police posse arrived within the hour and, while を待つing the arrival of the 外科医, some 予選 photographs were taken from the bank. With the 外見 of the 外科医, the 地元の constable took off his boots and socks and waded into the pond to help 解除する up the 団体／死体 with as little 騒動 as possible.

すぐに, however, one of his feet trod on something hard and, groping 負かす／撃墜する, he brought into 見解（をとる） a mud-covered little ライフル銃／探して盗む.

"Careful!" ordered the sergeant はっきりと. "It's a repeating one! Keep, your fingers away from the 誘発する／引き起こす."

The ライフル銃／探して盗む 存在 手渡すd over, the 団体／死体 was 解除するd out with the 最大の care and laid upon a sheet of tarpaulin. Covered with mud and わずかな／ほっそりした, it was not pleasant to look at.

Pointing to a charred 穴を開ける in the centre of the jacket, the police 外科医 発言／述べるd grimly, "弾丸 負傷させる there! Probably he slipped and fell upon the ライフル銃／探して盗む and it went off! That's all I can say until I've done the 検視. I mayn't be able to do it to-day, but I will, at least, to-morrow morning."

"Very good, doctor," said the superintendent, "then we'll make the 検死 for the day after to-morrow."

Mr. Rayneham 存在 one of the 治安判事s of the 地区, the 地元の constable （機の）カム up to the Manor that evening with the 十分な story. Dora heard it later and was 大いに relieved to learn that the constable took it for 認めるd that the doctor's death had been the result of an 事故.

"It's やめる 平易な, sir," he had explained to Mr. Rayneham, "to see how it happened. He must have slipped on the bank and fallen on to the ライフル銃／探して盗む, as we can see from his 着せる／賦与するs that the muzzle was 圧力（をかける）d tight against his chest. He would have died instantaneously."

The 検死 was held in a small hall 隣接する to the East Dereham Police 駅／配置する, with all the 検死官's 陪審／陪審員団, however, 存在 chosen from the village of Blackston. They 全員一致で 選ぶd upon Harry 支持を得ようと努めるd, the under-gardener at the Manor, to be their foreman, because from their Saturday night disputations at the village inn they knew him to be the best educated of them all. By 占領／職業, the 検死官 was the proprietor of a livery stable in East Dereham. A 司法（官） of the Peace and a shrewd and 有能な man, he was 井戸／弁護士席 詩（を作る）d in his 義務s.

As the dead man was unknown 地元で, not much 利益／興味 was taken in the 検死, and only a few 観客s were gathered in the hall. Mrs. 追跡（する）, Dr. Simeon's housekeeper, and Mr. Rayneham identified the 団体／死体. The sergeant from Norwich, who was 代表するing the police, 詳細（に述べる）d where and how it had been 設立する, and then the police 外科医 stepped on to the stand.

He was sharp and quick and did not waste a word in what he told the 法廷，裁判所. In 簡潔な／要約する, he 明言する／公表するd he had duly 行為／行うd the 検視 upon the 死んだ and 設立する he had met his death by 溺死するing. Then, after a short pause, he 追加するd that just previous to his 存在 immersed in the water of the pond in which the 団体／死体 had been 設立する the 死んだ had received a 弾丸 負傷させる in the chest.

The 観客s gasped, a thrill of startled amazement ran through them and then a hard 緊張した silence filled the 法廷，裁判所.

"Then 死んだ was alive," asked the 検死官, "when he fell, or was placed in that pond?"

"Undoubtedly," replied the police 外科医, "as I 設立する water in both the stomach and the 肺s, 示すing 決定的な 行為／法令／行動するs and that as a living 存在 he had swallowed and breathed in the water. I 設立する, too, that the water taken in 含む／封じ込めるd algae, a minute form of vegetable growth 設立する in all inland ponds. They were in plenty in that pond from which the 団体／死体 was taken."

"Would he have been conscious when he became immersed in that pond?" asked the 検死官.

"From his 存在 設立する 溺死するd in such shallow water," was the reply, "I should say not. The shock of the 弾丸 in the sternum or breast-bone, as we know it, probably produced a 明言する／公表する of instantaneous unconsciousness."

"Would the 負傷させる in the breast-bone have been a 致命的な one?" asked the 検死官.

"By no means. Comparatively speaking, the 傷害 was a trivial one, as the 弾丸 had 侵入するd no 決定的な 組織／臓器."

"And from what 肉親，親類d of 武器 had the 弾丸, in your opinion, been 解雇する／砲火／射撃d?"

"From one 類似の to the ライフル銃／探して盗む which was 設立する lying by his 味方する—a small .22 ライフル銃／探して盗む."

A short silence followed and the 検死官 asked, "And, in your opinion, how was the 負傷させる （打撃，刑罰などを）与えるd?"

The answer was 誘発する. "To all 外見s 死んだ slipped and fell upon the ライフル銃／探して盗む and it went off. From the charred 条件 of the cloth of the jacket where the 弾丸 went in the muzzle must have been 圧力（をかける）d up tight against the 団体／死体 of 死んだ."

"Then you would say the 負傷させる was 偶発の?"

"Yes, and that the 死んだ fell into the pond and was 溺死するd."

The 検死官 paused again. "Anything else to tell us, doctor?" he asked.

"Only that I 設立する a long scratch upon the 支援する of the 権利 手渡す of 死んだ," was the reply, "a scratch that must have been received very の直前に he died."

"What sort of scratch?" asked the 検死官. "What is likely to have 原因（となる）d it?"

The doctor shrugged his shoulder. "Anything almost, a sharp thorn, the 誘発する／引き起こす of the ライフル銃／探して盗む or a finger-nail."

"His own finger-nail?" queried the 検死官.

"やめる likely," nodded the doctor. "I noticed they were by no means short."

The 検死官 looked first に向かって the sergeant and then に向かって the 陪審／陪審員団, 明白に 招待するing questions, but, no one 答える／応じるing, he thanked the doctor for his 証拠 and the latter at once left the 証人席. The 陪審／陪審員団 were now whispering together.

The 検死官 turned に向かって the 陪審／陪審員団 again. "No questions then?" he asked, and すぐに the Manor under-gardener, shaking his 長，率いる, rose to his feet. "We are やめる 満足させるd, sir," he said, "and ready to 記録，記録的な／記録する our 判決. We . . ."

But the sergeant had jumped up, too. "I ask for an 調整／景気後退, sir," he said, "an 調整／景気後退 until その上の notice."

Everyone, 含むing the 検死官, looked surprised. The whole 事例／患者 seemed so straightforward that they could not understand the sergeant's 態度.

However, the foreman was still standing his ground. "The 証拠 of the police 外科医——" he began, but the 検死官 削減（する） him short with a smile.

"If the police ask for an 調整／景気後退," he said, "I must 認める it." And he rapped out, "延期，休会するd for a day to be 直す／買収する，八百長をするd later."

Dora was most uneasy when Mr. Rayneham had returned with the news. Young Jocelyn, who had got 支援する earlier than he had 推定する／予想するd, was with her in the lounge.

"I think the real inner 推論する／理由 for the 活動／戦闘 of the police," explained Mr. Rayneham, "is that they 選ぶd up a button which had 明らかに been torn with some 暴力／激しさ from the doctor's jacket. Also, I fancy the doctor's housekeeper must have told them something, as I saw her and the sergeant having a long whispering together just before the 検死 opened." He smiled. "Harry 支持を得ようと努めるd, our under-gardener here who had been made foreman of the 陪審／陪審員団, was all ready with his 判決 of 偶発の death and looked やめる annoyed when the police asked for an 調整／景気後退."

"And what do the police think they are going to do now?" asked the 中尉／大尉／警部補.

"井戸／弁護士席, it's no secret," replied Mr. Rayneham, "and I 推定する／予想する everyone will soon know. So there's no 害（を与える） in my について言及するing it. 陸軍大佐 Mayne told me it happens they've got two of the 星／主役にする 探偵，刑事s from Scotland Yard at 現在の in Norwich upon another 事例／患者, and they're putting them in a day or two on this one, as 井戸／弁護士席. They are 視察官s 石／投石する and Mendel, and supposed to be very shrewd fellows. As 長，指導者 Constable, it happens the 陸軍大佐 has met them before."

"Never mind, Lady Stroud," 保証するd Jocelyn when Mr. Rayneham had gone. "They can't find out anything and we're やめる 安全な."

The next morning, however, Dora button-穴を開けるd him with a very anxious look upon her 直面する. "I'm very worried now about something else," she said. "I've lost one of my silk 長，率いる-kerchiefs, and I only remembered a few minutes ago when I couldn't find the particular one I 手配中の，お尋ね者 that I was wearing it on Sunday afternoon when I went for that walk through the 支持を得ようと努めるd." Her 発言する／表明する quavered. "I'm afraid it must have come off when I was struggling with that dreadful man. I was too worried then to notice anything."

"But someone would have 選ぶd it up if you had," 慰安d Jocelyn, "and they wouldn't have known it was yours if they had."

Dora shook her 長，率いる. "But it had my monogram worked on it," she said most uneasily, "D.L.S. I'm thinking the 勝利，勝つd may have blown it into the bushes. Remember it was very 風の強い that afternoon?"

Jocelyn whistled. "That's ぎこちない. I'll go and look for it at once."

"Oh, I do so wish you would," said Dora. "It will relieve my mind such a lot if you find it. It's one of the brown ones I 一般に wear. I daren't be seen 近づく the place myself."

So the 中尉／大尉／警部補 始める，決める off with no 延期する, and was soon going over every yard of the 支持を得ようと努めるd 一連の会議、交渉／完成する by the pond. Not finding the kerchief anywhere there, and by no means disheartened, he proceeded to go over an 隣接するing field just outside the 支持を得ようと努めるd.

Engrossed in his search, he did not notice that three men, 運動ing up in a car, had entered the 支持を得ようと努めるd. One was Wicks, the village constable, and his companions were 長，指導者 探偵，刑事-視察官 石／投石する and 視察官 Isaac Mendel, the two 探偵，刑事s whom Mr. Rayneham had just been talking about.

In the 早期に fifties, Charles 石／投石する was one of the Big Four at Scotland Yard and for many years had been recognised as one of the smartest men in the 犯罪の 調査 Department. Big and stout, with the real bull-dog type of 直面する, he was にもかかわらず at heart of a very kindly nature, with a humorous twinkle always ready to light up the shrewd big 注目する，もくろむs which looked out from under his big and bushy brows. Very little ever escaped Charlie 石／投石する, and though there was nothing of the いじめ（る） about him, woe betide the evil-doer who thought he could deceive him with trickery and lies. Then his 直面する would harden and he would 非難する out his questions like 弾丸s from a gun.

His 同僚, Isaac Mendel, a son of イスラエル as his 指名する 暗示するd was one of the youngest 視察官s at the Yard, 存在 only thirty-two, and had been cast in a very different mould. Born in an East End London slum, he was にもかかわらず 精製するd-looking, with the 注目する，もくろむs and forehead of a dreamer. He 借りがあるd his high position for one so young to his lively imagination and remarkable 力／強力にするs of deduction. 井戸／弁護士席 read, too, in the annals of 罪，犯罪, he was continually 製図／抽選 upon that knowledge for inspiration, and not a few of his successes had been 達成するd in that way.

Such were the two 探偵，刑事s who, arriving at the pond to start upon their 調査s, suddenly caught sight of young Jocelyn through the trees, pacing to and fro, looking for the 行方不明の kerchief.

"Who's that man?" asked 石／投石する はっきりと of the village constable. "Do you know him?"

"I'm not sure," was the hesitating reply, "but I think I've seen him somewhere before. Oh, yes, I remember. He's staying up at the Manor. I don't know his 指名する, but いつかs he uses Mr. Rayneham's car. I've heard he's an officer in the 海軍."

"井戸／弁護士席, what's he doing here?" frowned 石／投石する.

"Don't know," replied the constable, "but he's evidently looking for something."

For a couple of minutes or so the three men stood watching Jocelyn, and then, his search bringing him nearer to the 辛勝する／優位 of the 支持を得ようと努めるd and happening to look up, he caught sight of them.

He swore under his breath, for he knew the constable by sight and guessed at once that his companions would be 探偵，刑事s. It was certainly an ぎこちない moment, but always quick in his 決定／判定勝ち（する）s—the 海軍 had taught him that—he was minded to make the best of it, and so, walking boldly nearer to them, called out, "Seen a pheasant 追跡するing a broken wing? I saw one come in here from the road."

Receiving the reply from 石／投石する that they had not, he nonchalantly 再開するd his search, giving it up, however, in a few minutes and taking himself off. He was very disappointed he had not 設立する the kerchief, but ーするつもりであるd to come 支援する again later when the coast was （疑いを）晴らす.

Dora was 自然に most 苦しめるd at his want of success, but things became much worse when the conspirators heard the next morning at breakfast that the kerchief had been 設立する.

Only a few minutes before, Mrs. Rayneham had been told casually by her cook that the latter's sister who lived on the 郊外s of Blackston village had 選ぶd up a beautiful silk kerchief with a monogram on it, の中で some bushes at the 味方する of the road skirting the small 支持を得ようと努めるd in which was 据えるd the pond which was now uppermost in everybody's mind. She had 設立する it on the Monday morning, but had said nothing about it to anyone.

Then two days later, upon the Wednesday, she had washed it and, along with two good tea-着せる／賦与するs which she had just bought, had hung it upon the line in the garden just before going out. Upon her return home, however, she had 設立する all the three articles gone. She 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd some gypsies as 存在 the thieves, because すぐに after leaving home she had met a one-horse gypsy caravan on the road going in the direction of her cottage, and it was 井戸／弁護士席-known how dishonest so many gypsies were.

"But having 設立する it not far from that pond," 結論するd Mrs. Rayneham, "I think she should have について言及するd it."

"Of course she せねばならない have done so," said her husband. "I don't suppose it's of any importance, but still she せねばならない have told the police. However, I'm going into Norwich to-day and shall probably see 陸軍大佐 Mayne at lunch at the club. So I'll tell him about it."

"But if those gypsies have taken it, sir," said Jocelyn 安定したing his 発言する／表明する, "they'll hardly catch them now three days have gone by."

"Oh, won't they?" laughed Mr. Rayneham. "When they're on the 職業 they'll learn where that caravan is within an hour. With only one horse they won't have gone very far, and going in the direction the 先頭 was they'll probably find it up Sheringham or Cromer way. Every little police 駅／配置する all 一連の会議、交渉／完成する will be phoned up at once and someone is sure to have seen it pass."

"Splendid!" whispered Jocelyn to Dora when they got up from the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. "I'll go off on my モーター-bike at once and be 支援する with the kerchief before tea. Don't you worry. I'll get to those gypsies before the police do. They'll be やめる 平易な to find."

Sure enough, at the cost of three beers at different public houses he 設立する them with no difficulty, though not altogether in the direction Mr. Rayneham had 示すd, as arriving at the small town of Holt the caravan had taken the road 直接／まっすぐに opposite to that 主要な to Sheringham and Cromer.

Giving the same explanation every time he made his enquiry—that he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to find the gypsies because he had heard they had some good fox-terrier pups for sale—he was lucky to learn from a publican in Holt that the latter had happened to see the caravan turning in the road 主要な に向かって 井戸／弁護士席s the previous evening.

"There were a man and his wife and two children on board," said the publican, "and if ever I met a rogue that gypsy is one. He （機の）カム in here, wanting to sell me a 急ぐ basket they'd made and asked six （頭が）ひょいと動く for it. It was not a bad basket, and I 申し込む／申し出d two （頭が）ひょいと動く. After he'd had a couple of beers I got it for that." He grinned. "He had some sort of young dog with him outside, but it was certainly nothing like a fox terrier. It looked a mongrel to me, a real poacher's lurcher. It was only a puppy."

大いに elated with the thought that the gypsies could not be very far away, Jocelyn proceeded up the 井戸／弁護士席s road and, sure enough, a 明らかにする half mile before reaching the little town, （機の）カム upon a shabby-looking caravan parked upon a stretch of turf just off the 味方する of the road, with a rather dense 支持を得ようと努めるd just behind it. A horse was tethered nearby, a woman was plaiting 急ぐs on the steps of the 先頭, and two young children, a boy and a girl, were playing 一連の会議、交渉／完成する with a half-grown puppy.

Jocelyn's heart almost leapt into his mouth as he saw the girl had got her 長，率いる covered with what looked like the very kerchief he had come after. It was 正確に／まさに like the one he had seen Dora wearing.

Pulling up his モーター-cycle, he lit a cigarette and strolled over to the caravan. Now for it, he thought, with his heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing quickly; a little tact and, if they'd got it, the kerchief would be his!

"Good afternoon!" he exclaimed smilingly to the woman. "Can you tell me how far I am from the sea? Oh, about two miles! No, don't stop working. I'd like to watch you."

Leaning up against the caravan, he watched the 進歩 of the making of a basket, with the children 注目する，もくろむing him shyly, and the dog capering around.

Suddenly a movement from the direction of the 支持を得ようと努めるd behind the caravan caught his 注目する，もくろむ and he saw a man step furtively out from の中で the trees and peer up and 負かす／撃墜する the road. From one 手渡す dangled やめる a large catapult and, from the other, the carcass of a lordly cock-pheasant. Not noticing Jocelyn, and 明らかに 満足させるd that the coast was （疑いを）晴らす, the man began walking に向かって his wife on the steps of the 先頭. Then, for the first time catching sight of a stranger, he looked 脅すd, and with a quick movement put the 手渡す 持つ／拘留するing the pheasant behind him.

"Too late, old chap," laughed Jocelyn merrily. "I saw it, and a nice big long-tail it is. No, don't worry about me I'm always game for a bit of poaching myself when I get the chance."

安心させるd by the young 中尉／大尉／警部補's words, the man （機の）カム 今後 with a sheepish grin and 許すd Jocelyn to take the pheasant from him. "And do you mean to say," asked Jocelyn, "that you killed it with that catapult you've got there?"

"Not 正確に／まさに killed it, guv'nor," laughed the man, "but I 粉砕するd one of his wings with it, so that he couldn't run 急速な／放蕩な, and then caught him and broke his neck." He took a handful of 一連の会議、交渉／完成する 石／投石するs out of his pocket. "These are wot I use and anything that keeps still is an 平易な 示す for me. A bunny rabbit doesn't often get away."

"A real good bird this," 発言／述べるd Jocelyn, "fat and 激しい and all ready for the マリファナ. Come—I'll give you five （頭が）ひょいと動く for it. 井戸／弁護士席, then, six! No, not a penny more and that's all it's 価値（がある）! All 権利! Then I'll put it in the box upon my 運送／保菌者 before anyone comes along to see."

The lid of the box was 解除するd, 公表する／暴露するing a small camera and a nearly 十分な 瓶／封じ込める of whisky. Seeing the whisky, the man's 注目する，もくろむs gleamed and Jocelyn laughed. "What about a little こども to clinch the 取引?" he asked. "All 権利, then! You get a glass and you shall have one."

明らかに the caravan did not run to glasses, however, and a cup without a 扱う was produced instead. Jocelyn 注ぐd out a generous dose and then took notice of the children.

"And what about a photograph of them?" he asked. "All 権利, and I'll give them sixpence each for letting me take it! Now children, stand やめる still, with the dog between you."

He 提起する／ポーズをとるd them in the 権利 position and then said it would be better if the girl took off her kerchief and let her pretty curls be seen. Her 直面する all grins and excitement at the 約束d sixpence, the girl snatched off the kerchief and dropped it on to the ground. The puppy at once made a dart for it, but Jocelyn was too quick for him, and 選ぶing it up, threw it over his arm.

He took several snaps, dawdling over the 商売／仕事 so that they should all forget about the kerchief, which without their noticing he had crumpled up and thrust into his pocket. The taking of the snaps finished, he took some small change, 含むing some silver coins 同様に as pennies, from his pocket, and 発表するd he would 緊急発進する everything の中で them.

First, he flipped over some pennies, and the children had 広大な／多数の／重要な fun in searching for them の中で the grass, with the puppy joining in with much barking and excitement and continually getting in their way and tripping them up.

Finally, thinking the game had gone on やめる long enough, he threw all the 残り／休憩（する） of the coins at the same time, and the gypsy and his wife roared with laughter at the 猛烈な／残忍な 緊急発進する which 続いて起こるd.

Suddenly, in the middle of all the noise and when the children were fully 占領するd searching in the grass, Jocelyn looked at his wrist-watch and exclaimed in びっくり仰天, "Goodness, gracious, I'm 予定 in Hunstanton in twenty minutes. Shan't I catch it for 存在 late?" and running over to his モーター-cycle, he jumped into the saddle and with a smiling wave of his 手渡す, was off like the 勝利，勝つd.

For about half a minute or so he was 推定する／予想するing every moment to hear a 厳しい 発言する／表明する calling upon him to stop and asking where the kerchief was, but, had he only known it, the gypsy was every bit as anxious for him to get away as was he himself. For a very good 推論する／理由, too, as during the excitement of 緊急発進するing for the coins, upon a whispered （裁判所の）禁止（強制）命令 from her husband, the woman had こそこそ動くd over to the モーター-cycle and abstracted the 瓶／封じ込める of whisky from the box on the 運送／保菌者.

Oh, the thankfulness in the young 中尉／大尉／警部補's heart when, out of sight of the 先頭 by a turn in the road, he took the kerchief out of his pocket and saw upon it the monogram of D.L.S.

It was a most thankful Dora, too, who met him when he arrived 支援する at the Manor by a roundabout way so that he would not have to pass the gypsy's 先頭 again. There were others 現在の when he （機の）カム into the lounge, but she saw from the 表現 upon his 直面する that he had been successful, and when later they were by themselves and he returned the kerchief to her and told her the whole story, she said she could not be 感謝する enough.

"Nonsense!" he said. He made a wry smile. "Don't you forget I'm deeper in it than you are, as it was I who によれば what that doctor said, 溺死するd the man. So there's no need for you to be 感謝する. I'm working now as much to save myself as you. It'll be the devil of a 商売／仕事 for me if everything is 設立する out."

Dora had told him about her visit to Larose, and he had やめる 認可するd of her having gone to him. "But about telling your husband," he frowned. "I 収容する／認める I'm rather uneasy about that. Why bring him into it at all? He can't help us in any way and it would only worry him. Besides, if it should ever come to a show-負かす／撃墜する, which happily is not likely now, it would look much better if he had known nothing about it. Then he wouldn't be able to be dragged in for 共謀 against the 法律. Yes," he said reflectively, "I should think hard before telling him anything about it."

Dora fully realised the sense of his argument, but for all that she hated the idea of keeping such an important 事柄 from Richard. There had always been such perfect 信用 between them, and she did not want to start deceiving him now. At any 率, she told herself, she would think it over and decide later what to do.

The 中尉／大尉／警部補 broke in upon her thoughts. "And I got such a lovely pheasant from the poaching gypsy," he grinned. "I've hung it up behind the door in one of the potting sheds. I daren't bring it into the house until I've spoken to Aunt first. She mayn't like to have a bird taken out of season put upon the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する."

"But how are you going to tell her you 得るd it?" asked Dora.

Jocelyn frowned. "I'd better keep up the story I told those 探偵，刑事s and say it was in that field 近づく the pond. It has got a broken wing 権利 enough." He nodded. "Yes, I'll go and tell Aunt at once."

"井戸／弁護士席, you've been a darling boy to me," exclaimed Dora fervently, "for with the police getting 持つ／拘留する of that kerchief I should have been utterly lost. I couldn't have 否定するd it was 地雷, and when they started 尋問 me they would have seen there was something 有罪の about me at once." Her 発言する／表明する choked. "Yes, Harry, I'm so 感謝する to you," and upon the impulse of the moment she put her 武器 一連の会議、交渉／完成する his neck and kissed him.

Then just at that very moment Mrs. Rayneham （機の）カム into the room and her 注目する，もくろむs went wide as saucers in their amazement. "What on earth are you doing, Dora?" she asked はっきりと. Her 発言する／表明する took on a 苦痛d 公式文書，認める. "Oh, I didn't think that of you! What do you mean by it?"

Dora, with her 直面する as red as 解雇する／砲火／射撃, was speechless in her 当惑, and though to all 外見s as embarrassed as she was, it was young Jocelyn who answered for her. "It's all 権利, Aunt," he said frowningly. "It wasn't a flirtatious kiss. Lady Stroud was just thanking me for something I'd done for her."

"And you, too, Harry!" went on Mrs. Rayneham, looking very 苦しめるd. "I didn't think you 有能な of it either. Do you forget you're engaged to that nice Elsie Sherbourne girl?"

"Oh, damn it all," exclaimed Jocelyn with 激しい irritation, "I've said there was no flirtation 商売／仕事 about it." He turned to Dora with a 抱擁する sigh. "There's no help for it, Lady Stroud. We'll have to tell her everything." He spoke はっきりと. "No, don't you interrupt. I'll make her understand better than you," and into the horrified ears of his aunt he proceeded to 注ぐ out the whole dreadful story.

Mrs. Rayneham listened with a 直面する as white as death, her first thoughts, 自然に, 存在 only of the スキャンダル that would 落ちる upon her house. Then, seeing Dora's terrible 苦しめる, her better feelings took 所有／入手 of her, and choking 支援する her own びっくり仰天, she put her 武器 一連の会議、交渉／完成する her friend to 慰安 her.

"You poor dear little woman!" she exclaimed. "But don't lose heart, for, as Harry says, the police may never find out what happened."

"I told everything to Mr. Larose that day I went to Carmel Abbey," said Dora chokingly, "and he said the only thing now was to say nothing. He was very 肉親，親類d and nice and said I was to let him know if Scotland Yard （機の）カム bothering me."

Mrs. Rayneham was thrilled to learn Larose was in the secret, too, and began to 静める 負かす／撃墜する すぐに. Always a good organiser, she began to take 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of things at once, and brightened up かなり in doing so.

"We are playing for high 火刑／賭けるs," she said, "and we must have our defence all 削減（する） and 乾燥した，日照りのd, and be ready to answer any questions they put to us. First, give me that kerchief and I'll 燃やす it at once. As Cook's sister washed and アイロンをかけるd it, there may be something about it she would recognise at once, a frayed thread somewhere or something small like that. Besides, you've got plenty of others, 港／避難所't you?"

"Six or seven," nodded Dora, "but they are of different colours, as you've seen."

"All with your monogram on them? 井戸／弁護士席, that doesn't 事柄. Two or three of 地雷 have got my monogram on them, but I've always been too busy to work it on them all."

"Now what about an アリバイ for Lady Stroud?" asked Jocelyn, looking most relieved at the way things were going. He grinned. "Now you are in with us, you can say you saw us start on that walk together."

"Of course I did," smiled his aunt. "Didn't I 示唆する you went 負かす／撃墜する to the 地位，任命する office with her?" She became 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な. "Now we mustn't tell our husbands. They'd worry themselves to pieces and, as Harry says, it's much better not to bring them into it."

"Oh, Nina, dear, you are 甘い!" exclaimed Dora. "I shan't feel half so worried with you helping us."

"And I'm helping myself, too," smiled Mrs. Rayneham. "Goodness knows I don't want any スキャンダル here." She looked やめる animated. "Come, we three of us pulling together せねばならない be やめる a match for any clumsy 探偵，刑事s. We've all got courage, and if we play our parts carefully no one should be able to get behind our defences."

"And now what about that pheasant?" asked the 中尉／大尉／警部補. "It's such a beauty and, though out of season, it would be a 広大な／多数の／重要な pity to waste it. What about it coming on at dinner to-morrow night? It would be a 広大な／多数の／重要な surprise for Uncle."

Mrs. Rayneham shook her 長，率いる. "It would certainly be a 広大な／多数の／重要な surprise for him," she said dryly, "but he would be furiously angry. Just think, too, of what they'd say in the kitchen with the chairman of the （法廷の）裁判 of 治安判事s eating a pheasant in の近くに time. It might get all 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the neighbourhood. No, you leave it where it is until you go up to Town and then you can give it to your mother."

"Good," grinned Jocelyn; "she won't be so particular. It's a lovely bird."

In the 合間 Mr. Rayneham, as he had said he would, had passed on the （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） to the 長，指導者 Constable of a monogrammed 長，率いる-kerchief having been 選ぶd up upon the bushes 近づく the pond, and the 探偵，刑事s at once got busy.

They interviewed the cook's sister in the village and, with no 延期する, went after the gypsy caravan. Phoning up the country police-駅／配置するs, as Mr. Rayneham had surmised they would, they soon learnt where it had been last seen, and almost within an hour had come upon it parked by the 味方する of the road where the 中尉／大尉／警部補 had 設立する it.

The two children had gone into the town to spend the money which had been given them, and only the father and mother were now with the caravan. Of course the kerchief had been 行方不明になるd, but the thought had never for one moment entered any of their minds that the generous 寄贈者 of the pennies and threepences had taken it. After a 徹底的な search all 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, the 見えなくなる was put 負かす／撃墜する to the puppy having taken it off and dropped it somewhere in the 支持を得ようと努めるd. Accordingly he had been 井戸／弁護士席 smacked for having done so.

So when a car pulled up and a police sergeant and two 探偵，刑事s jumped out of it, there were only the gypsy and his wife to be dealt with.

"Now then," said the sergeant brusquely, "we've come about those things you stole off that 着せる／賦与するs-line in Blackston three days ago."

By this time the man and his good lady had between them drunk all the whisky they had acquired from the 中尉／大尉／警部補, and in consequence were in やめる a jocular and happy 明言する／公表する of mind. With their 井戸／弁護士席-seasoned stomachs, there had not been enough of the good spirit to make them 井戸／弁護士席 drunk, but they were 十分な of the joy of life and afraid of nothing and nobody. So neither of them appeared to be in any way put out by the arrival of their 訪問者s.

The man cupped his ear as if he were rather deaf. "Stolen a 着せる／賦与するs-line!" he exclaimed in 広大な／多数の／重要な indignation. "What should I want a 着せる／賦与するs-line for? It'd be no good to me."

"You stole things off a 着せる／賦与するs-line," shouted the sergeant truculently, "and it'll be best for you if you own up. You stole a silk handkerchief and two tea-cloths."

The man laughed derisively. He felt やめる 安全な. The handkerchief had gone and the tea-cloths, 存在 large and of good 質, had already been made into underpants for the children and they were now wearing them.

"証明する it," he retorted. His 発言する／表明する rose in 怒り／怒る. "I'm an honest man, I am. You ask my missis."

"Yes, he's honest enough," hiccuped the wife. "He'd no more steal off a 着せる／賦与するs-line than 略奪する a church."

"And I certainly wouldn't 信用 him there," snarled the sergeant. "From the look of you both I wouldn't 信用 either of you anywhere with a sixpence." He spoke menacingly. "You passed through Blackston village on Wednesday?"

"What of it?" 需要・要求するd the gypsy with some heat. "That wasn't a 罪，犯罪, was it?"

The sergeant ignored his question and scowled nastily. "井戸／弁護士席, we're going to search your 先頭, anyhow," he said, and he made a 動議 with his arm to the two …を伴ってing 探偵，刑事s.

"Search away," grinned the gypsy; "and any diamonds or 着せる／賦与するs-lines you find you can keep for yourselves. I don't want them."

The caravan was small and soon gone through, but of course nothing of what was 存在 looked for was 設立する. The gypsy and his wife were most willing, if not indeed anxious, for their persons to be searched, too, generously discarding 衣料品 after 衣料品 until the disgusted sergeant ordered them to stop. He 注目する，もくろむd the empty whisky 瓶／封じ込める with evident 疑惑.

"How did you get that?" he asked.

"Why, I bought it, of course, in the same way as I suppose you buy what you want to drink," returned the gypsy, 明らかに in some surprise at the question 存在 asked. He grinned. "You don't find 瓶／封じ込めるs of whisky growing on trees, do you?"

"But you stole that handkerchief off the 着せる／賦与するs-line," snapped the sergeant 怒って. "We are 確かな of it."

"Not I," retorted the gypsy. "I never use one." He grinned again. "I blow my nose in the natural way," and he made an 上向き movement with his thumb and finger which made the 探偵，刑事s grin, too, and the sergeant inclined to retch.

"But I don't 信用 you," the sergeant snarled.

"Nor I you," shouted 支援する the gypsy, "and I'm ruddy glad I was here to look after my poor missis when you blokes （機の）カム. I know darned 井戸／弁護士席 what you police are with the girls," and the three minions of the 法律, regarding with loathing the now scantily-attired and filthy-looking gypsy woman, hurried 支援する quickly to their car and proceeded to 運動 away, followed by the derisive laughter of the gypsy and his wife. Had there been more whisky in the 瓶／封じ込める the two last might even have been やめる agreeable to starting a fight.

CHAPTER IX. — THE HOUNDS UPON THE TRAIL

THREE mornings later 視察官 石／投石する and Mendel, who had モーターd 負かす／撃墜する from Town, were closeted with the 長，指導者 Constable of Norwich and the superintendent of the Norwich police to 報告（する）／憶測 upon their 進歩 in the 事柄 of the 調査 into the death of Dr. Simeon.

"And we tell you 率直に, sir," said 石／投石する, "that we are by no means 満足させるd that his death was 偶発の. Indeed, my 同僚 and I think there are good 推論する／理由s to believe to the contrary." He shook his 長，率いる. "No, we are not in any way 影響（力）d to this 結論 by the fact that a 価値のある gold wrist-watch, which his housekeeper 明言する／公表するs he always wore, is 行方不明の. We don't believe that that had anything to do with the 殺人."

"やめる so," agreed the 長，指導者 Constable, "for if his death were a 犯罪の 行為／法令／行動する the 動機 could not have been that of 強盗, since nearly thirty 続けざまに猛撃するs in 公式文書，認めるs was 設立する in his hip pocket." He frowned ひどく. "But what on earth makes you think he was 殺人d?"

"Our 疑惑s were roused at once," replied 石／投石する, very 厳粛に, "直接／まっすぐに we read over the police 記録，記録的な／記録するing of the 検死, and when we saw that button which had been torn off his jacket, things looked very serious to us."

"But our men here," said the 長，指導者 Constable rather testily, "were of the opinion it might easily have been, and probably was, torn off if the doctor had been の中で those bushes の近くに to where it was 設立する."

"Yes, but torn off so violently as it had been," said 石／投石する, "with a piece of the cloth of the jacket 固執するing to the threads, he must have known it had happened, and surely then he would have 選ぶd it up at once and put it in his pocket?"

"But he might have been too 意図 when getting those 強硬派s," frowned the 長，指導者 Constable. "At that moment one of the birds might have been 権利 in 前線 of the sights of his ライフル銃／探して盗む."

石／投石する 公式文書，認めるd the frown and, not wanting to annoy the 長，指導者 Constable by any 明らかな reflection upon his own men, at once spoke with いっそう少なく 保証／確信. "Certainly, sir, it might かもしれない have been as you say," he 認める. He shrugged his shoulders. "Still, it struck us he might have been engaged in some sort of struggle with someone, and we mustn't altogether 支配する that out."

The 長，指導者 Constable smiled a 乾燥した，日照りの smile. "井戸／弁護士席, what else have you 設立する out?"

"You may think nothing much," smiled 支援する 石／投石する, "but then little things いつかs 開始する up to make a big one, don't they?" He continued, "Now first to consider the man himself in the light of some very searching enquiries we have been making about him in Town." He spoke slowly and impressively. "Dr. Simeon was forty-seven years of age and had a large practice in Harley Street where he had had his 協議するing-rooms for from twelve to thirteen years. His speciality was supposed to be 病気s of women, but he 扱う／治療するd 神経 事例／患者s 同様に and had やめる a fair 割合 of men の中で the 患者s who （機の）カム to 協議する him." The stout 視察官 frowned. "Though we police have never had anything 限定された against him, I find now that his 指名する was not altogether unknown to some of us up at Scotland Yard. It was rumoured he was by no means averse to operating 不法に, 供給するd the 料金s were big enough to induce him to take the 危険."

"And from where did the rumours come?" asked the 長，指導者 Constable with obvious scepticism in his トンs.

石／投石する shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? In the end you can't keep these things altogether dark. At any 率 it appears to have been 井戸／弁護士席 known that he ran a small 私的な hospital in St. John's 支持を得ようと努めるd where 女性（の） 患者s went for 操作／手術s, and it was 発言／述べるd a good 割合 of them were out and suspiciously 井戸／弁護士席 again in a few days. You know nurses and servants will talk."

The 長，指導者 Constable made no comment and the 視察官 went on, "Then another thing. His 評判 with other doctors was by no means a good one, as it was believed it was very 平易な for 井戸／弁護士席-to-do 麻薬 （麻薬）常用者s to get a prescription for morphia out of him, at a very good 料金, of course."

"But as a successful professional man," 発言／述べるd the 長，指導者 Constable はっきりと, "he is sure to have made enemies, and so most probably these rumours, like the others, were only pure スキャンダル."

石／投石する shook his 長，率いる. "I hardly think so, as 医療の men 一般に size up their professional brethren pretty 正確に, and shady 顧客s の中で them soon become known."

"But if there were the slightest 疑惑 of any bad 評判 about him," frowned the 長，指導者 Constable, "I am sure Mr. Rayneham would have had nothing to do with him. Mr. Rayneham is one of the straightest of men I know, and is always most particular about the friends he chooses."

"That may be," said 石／投石する, "but he might have known nothing about the doctor's later life. The friendship between them went 支援する to nearly thirty years, to their undergraduate days at Cambridge. Certainly, on the surface, Dr. Simeon was a very likeable man, and 特に a 広大な／多数の／重要な favourite with the ladies." He smiled a grim smile. "It was ありふれた knowledge he was continually to be seen about with different ones at theatres, cinemas, and expensive restaurants, and I 推定する／予想する Mrs. 追跡（する）, the housekeeper at the flat in Earl's 法廷，裁判所, could tell us some 利益／興味ing tales if only she would open out."

He went on. "井戸／弁護士席, here we have a very busy professional man going 負かす／撃墜する to Blackston Manor on the Friday afternoon, under the 際立った understanding with his host that he was to be put on the London 表明する at the Norwich 鉄道 駅／配置する on the に引き続いて Sunday evening. He had impressed upon Mr. Rayneham that he must go 支援する to Town upon the Sunday, because he had a 激しい week's work before him. We have 立証するd he was speaking the truth there by the 任命s 調書をとる／予約する at his 協議するing-rooms. He had four 操作／手術s during the week, and every hour almost seemed 調書をとる／予約するd up with an 任命."

石／投石する shrugged his shoulders. "Then what followed? Suddenly upon the Sunday morning just before lunch, 説 he thought a little 残り／休憩（する） would do him good, he 発表するd to his host that he would like to 長引かせる his stay for a few days. Mr. Rayneham told the superintendent here that he was much surprised, as he knew his friend never spared himself by shirking any of his work. But there it was—all in a moment, as it were, gone was all his 関心 for the many 患者s who would have been 協議するing him the に引き続いて week, and gone also was all his 利益／興味 in the four 操作／手術s which would be を待つing him." He 注目する，もくろむd the 長，指導者 Constable intently. "So we must ask ourselves what was the 推論する／理由 for this sudden change of 計画（する）s? What had happened in the 先行する forty-eight hours to 原因（となる） him to alter his mind and no longer think it necessary for him to return to Town on the Sunday evening? Surely it must have been something very important! Then what was it?"

He looked smilingly に向かって his young 同僚. "井戸／弁護士席, 視察官 Mendel thinks he can tell us and I do believe he's 権利."

Mendel turned to the 長，指導者 Constable with a 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な, unsmiling 直面する. "My opinion, sir," he said with some 決定／判定勝ち（する）, "is that it could only have been the presence at the Manor of some member of the other sex which had made him change his mind. He had suddenly become 利益／興味d in some girl or woman there."

For the moment the 長，指導者 Constable looked most astonished, and then he burst into a hearty laugh.

"That's a long 発射, isn't it," he asked, "if ever there was one?"

"But not such a long one, sir," said Mendel 厳粛に, "as it may first appear." He spoke impressively. "Dr. Simeon was in his forty-eighth year and, going 支援する for many years through the 記録，記録的な／記録するs of Scotland Yard, we see that, in 罪，犯罪s of passion, far more often than not it is the man of middle age who is the central 人物／姿／数字." He spoke interestedly. "It would seem, sir, that when 井戸／弁護士席 into middle age, just when with most men the normal and natural 利益／興味 in the other sex is beginning to grow いっそう少なく—in others it starts to take on a new and unnatural 賃貸し（する） of life. Then it becomes an obsession far more 吸収するing and 圧倒的な even than that of a young man in his first love 事件／事情／状勢. The middle-老年の lover will sacrifice everything to his passion. So if the doctor was intensely 利益／興味d in some woman, neglecting his practice for a week or so might have been to him a 事柄 of no importance at all."

"But—but," 抗議するd the frowning 長，指導者 Constable, "surely there is nothing to 示唆する that any woman had anything to do with his 存在 溺死するd in that pond?"

"We think there is, sir," said Mendel 堅固に. "We believe that 長，率いる-kerchief which was 選ぶd up （機の）カム from some woman who had been with him in the 支持を得ようと努めるd that afternoon. There may have been a struggle, with the kerchief 存在 torn off and blown away. The struggle, too, would explain the torn-off button and the scratch upon the 支援する of the doctor's 手渡す."

"But you're building up a lot upon a very little, aren't you?" asked the bewildered 長，指導者 Constable.

"Not more than we have good 推論する／理由 to think we are する権利を与えるd to," said Mendel, "特に so, as by a strange chance we believe now we were actual 注目する，もくろむ-証言，証人／目撃するs of a search 存在 made for that kerchief," and he proceeded to tell them about the young fellow they had seen who had pretended he was looking for a 負傷させるd pheasant.

"And the village constable who was with us," he 結論するd, "recognised him as one of the 訪問者s then staying up at the Manor. So what could be more 確かな than that, if someone from the Manor were looking for the kerchief, then someone from the Manor had lost it? Of course, we didn't know then a kerchief had been lost."

"But who was the man," asked the 長，指導者 Constable はっきりと, "whom the village constable said he recognised?"

"He didn't know his 指名する," replied Mendel, "but he'd seen him 運動ing through the village in Mr. Rayneham's car, and he was then in 海軍の uniform."

The 長，指導者 Constable burst into a hearty laugh. "中尉／大尉／警部補 Jocelyn!" he exclaimed. "I know him 井戸／弁護士席. He's Mrs. Rayneham's 甥, and as 罰金 a young fellow as ever wore His Majesty's uniform." He looked scornful. "Oh, what a 損なう's nest you've got 持つ／拘留する of!" He spoke はっきりと. "But what is 正確に／まさに your idea of what happened in the 支持を得ようと努めるd that afternoon?"

"We think, sir," said 石／投石する 厳粛に, "that by 協定 Dr. Simeon met some woman there. They quarrelled. Perhaps he started to get too fresh with her and——"

"Got too fresh with her!" exclaimed the 長，指導者 Constable, with obvious irritation. "And you say the whole 事件／事情／状勢 had started since he arrived at the Manor いっそう少なく than forty-eight hours before! Do you mean to make out that, even if he had become so infatuated with this unknown 女性（の）, she would have so fallen for him in that time as to be willing to make a secret 任命 in that 支持を得ようと努めるd?"

"We don't say that, sir," said 石／投石する はっきりと. "We don't think for a moment that the two had only known each other for those few hours. We say that they had met before, that they were old 知識s—it might be of years ago. As for the woman having fallen for him—-it might have been that she hated him, and had kept the 任命 only because he had some 持つ／拘留する upon her and she dared not 辞退する."

"I think it all nonsense," commented the 長，指導者 Constable crossly, "but I suppose you'll have to have your way and go up to the Manor and annoy them with your 尋問."

"But there'll be no 害（を与える） done, sir," 石／投石する 保証するd him, "if our 疑惑s are groundless, and that's where you can help us. I understand you are very friendly with Mr. and Mrs. Rayneham and were 現実に lunching at the Manor on the day before Dr. Simeon disappeared. So you can tell us who was there for the week-end, 特に ladies of an attractive age."

"The only ones at all young," replied the 長，指導者 Constable, unwillingly, "were Mrs. Rayneham herself and Lady Stroud. Mrs. Rayneham has been married eight years and I think Lady Stroud about five. Both of them are certainly very good-looking."

The superintendent spoke for the first time. "Lady Stroud is a very beautiful woman," he said, "and I understand she was a nurse at some hospital in London before she married Sir Richard Stroud."

石／投石する lowered his 注目する，もくろむs. A London 医療の man and a nurse from a London hospital! Then what was more probable than that they had met before? He did not dare to look at his 同僚. He rose at once to his feet. "Then we'll go up to the Manor straight away and put those few little questions we would like to." He saw the 長，指導者 Constable's 注目する，もくろむs turn to the telephone upon his desk. "No, sir," he went on quickly, "if you don't mind, I'd rather you didn't let them know we were coming. We'll take a chance at finding them at home."

The 長，指導者 Constable 紅潮／摘発するd that his thoughts were 存在 read. "All 権利," he said at once, "and I'll come up with you." He spoke grimly. "The unpleasantness of 存在 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd will not perhaps be as 広大な／多数の／重要な if I am 現在の at the 尋問."

石／投石する 悪口を言う／悪態d under his breath, but, hiding all 調印するs of annoyance, he 単に 表明するd his 楽しみ at the 長，指導者 Constable's company, and accordingly the three 始める，決める off together in the last 指名するd's car.

Now it happened 中尉／大尉／警部補 Jocelyn had driven Dora, the two children and their nurse to Cromer for the day, and so Mrs. Rayneham herself was the only 犠牲者 for the two 視察官s that morning. She was in the 運動 with her little son, who had not gone to Cromer with the others because he had a slight 冷淡な. When the car appeared, to her horror the boy ran across the 運動 after a バタフライ he had seen, 権利 in 前線 of the car, and only escaped 存在 run over by the 長，指導者 Constable ramming hard on his ブレーキs. She went white as death, and with her child clasped in her 武器, it was a very 不安定な woman who 直面するd her 訪問者s.

"No, it wasn't your fault," she said chokingly. "It was 地雷 for not keeping 持つ／拘留する of him as I should have done. It was wonderful the way you pulled up so quickly."

"Damn!" swore 石／投石する softly. "Now we shan't be able to tell how much of her fright is 予定 to the boy's escape and how much to our coming here."

The 視察官s were introduced, and Mrs. Rayneham led them into a little room just off the lounge. Both 石／投石する and Mendel were impressed by her 外見. Though most attractive-looking, she certainly did not seem the type of woman whose 行為／行う would ever lay her open to the chance of 存在 ゆすり，恐喝d. The 長，指導者 Constable in part explained the 推論する／理由 for their coming and then 視察官 石／投石する at once took on the tale.

"You must understand, Mrs. Rayneham," he said respectfully, "that we are not やめる sure in our own minds that the death of Dr. Simeon was just the simple 事故 it appears. Certainly it may have been an 事故, but we rather believe there were two persons 伴う／関わるd in it, and the other one was a woman."

Mrs. Rayneham's heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 unpleasantly, but the 表現 upon her 直面する was one only of a 広大な／多数の／重要な surprise. "What woman?" she asked incredulously.

"Who she was we do not know yet," replied 石／投石する very 厳粛に, "but we think that 長，率いる-kerchief which was 設立する upon those bushes belonged to her." His 注目する，もくろむs gripped hers intently. "You heard about that kerchief, of course?"

Mrs. Rayneham smiled. "It was I who heard about it first," she said. "My cook told me her sister in the village had 設立する one, and I happened to speak about it at breakfast." She turned to the 長，指導者 Constable. "Then my husband told you the same day, didn't he?"

The 長，指導者 Constable nodded. "And I passed on the （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） to the superintendent here at once."

"And you thought the 事柄 important, Mrs. Rayneham?" asked 石／投石する very softly.

Mrs. Rayneham shook her 長，率いる. "No, I didn't. Our 利益／興味 in it was only because cook's sister thought those gypsies had stolen it off her line. Gypsies are very annoying to us and we have caught them poaching やめる の近くに to the house. The pheasants in that 支持を得ようと努めるd where the pond is are very tame and will 許す you to approach to within a few yards."

"But Mrs. Rayneham," 固執するd 石／投石する, "if that kerchief had come off the 長，率いる of some woman who had been talking to Dr. Simeon in that 支持を得ようと努めるd—then that woman must have been someone staying here at the Manor."

"How do you make that out?" from Mrs. Rayneham.

"井戸／弁護士席, it was known only to people in this house that he was going there," said 石／投石する. "I 推定する／予想する all here had heard you had asked him to go after those 強硬派s, and so we think someone met him at that pond by 協定."

"But what for?" 需要・要求するd Mrs. Rayneham, looking very puzzled.

石／投石する hesitated. "That's what we want to know. We've got to find that out."

"But I think your idea is all nonsense," said Mrs. Rayneham. "Why, he'd not met any of the other 訪問者s until he arrived here on that Friday evening. So is it likely he had had time to become so friendly with one of them that she'd have been willing to make a secret 任命 with him in that 支持を得ようと努めるd?" She laughed merrily. "Besides, as it happens all we women have got unshakable アリバイs. Lady Stroud was the only one of us to leave the house after Dr. Simeon went out and she went 負かす／撃墜する to the 地位，任命する office with 中尉／大尉／警部補 Jocelyn to 地位，任命する some letters."

石／投石する was all smiles and amiability. "Still, if only 純粋に as a 事柄 of form we shall have to go on making a few enquiries. Now please tell me who の中で you are in the habit of wearing 長，率いる-kerchiefs?"

"I am, for one," replied Mrs. Rayneham at once. "Then there are old Mrs. Henson and Lady Stroud, too." She held up her 手渡す warningly. "Oh, you won't be able to talk to Lady Stroud this morning, as my 甥, 中尉／大尉／警部補 Jocelyn, has モーターd her 負かす／撃墜する with the children to Cromer for the day and they won't be home until nearly dinner-time."

石／投石する hid his 失望 with a smile. "Never mind. Perhaps I'll have a little talk with her another day. Now, about those kerchiefs. Have they all got a monogram upon them?"

"A few of 地雷 have," said Mrs. Rayneham, "and I think two or three of Lady Stroud's."

"Oh, then you ladies have several kerchiefs!" exclaimed 石／投石する.

"Of course we have," laughed Mrs. Rayneham, "to match the colours of the different blouses we wear. Kerchiefs take the place of hats when we are out in the country."

"Then would you very kindly let me see one of yours," said 石／投石する, "and of Lady Stroud's, too—a brown one preferred, like the colour of the one that girl in the village 設立する."

Mrs. Rayneham at once left the room to get them, and the 長，指導者 Constable smiled at 石／投石する. "Not much to fit in with your 広大な／多数の／重要な idea, 視察官, is there?" he asked. "Those アリバイs knock the 底（に届く） out of everything."

石／投石する smiled 支援する. "It looks like it, certainly." He shook his 長，率いる. "Still, you never know."

Mrs. Rayneham returned with the kerchiefs in a minute or two and the two 視察官s 扱うd them interestedly. "The letters are not very （疑いを）晴らす, are they?" 発言／述べるd 石／投石する. "Which are yours and which are Lady Stroud's."

Mrs. Rayneham pointed them out, and 石／投石する asked if he might borrow one belonging to each of them.

"To show to the girl in the village?" smiled Mrs. Rayneham.

石／投石する nodded. "To see if the monograms are anything like that on the one she 設立する. However, I don't 推定する／予想する she'll be able to tell us, as she's rather stupid, with not much 知能. I'll bring them 支援する tomorrow morning when I'll just have a word or two with Lady Stroud and 中尉／大尉／警部補 Jocelyn." He smiled ironically. "You see, we have to do something to earn the big salaries the 政府 支払う／賃金 us."

The 視察官s were introduced casually to the other 訪問者s, but did not appear much 利益／興味d in them, and soon took their leave. On their way 支援する to Norwich they stopped in the village to show the kerchiefs to the girl who had 設立する the one in the bushes, but she was not much help to them. Certainly she said the kerchiefs they had now brought with them were very like the one which had been stolen from her, and both the monograms upon them looked very 類似の. However, she could not definitely 選ぶ out from the two monograms which one most 似ているd hers.

"A fool," 発言／述べるd 石／投石する later with a frown, "and there's no help there."

When Dora and the 中尉／大尉／警部補 returned home that evening the former was certainly not too pleased to hear of the visit of the two 探偵，刑事s from Scotland Yard and to learn they were coming again on the morrow.

"But they were not very formidable, dear," 安心させるd Mrs. Rayneham, "and you've only got to stick bravely to your story of not having met Dr. Simeon before and they can't get behind it."

"Besides," said the 中尉／大尉／警部補 confidently, "you can say truthfully that you've never met him. 会合 a man means that you've spoken to him and not just seen him passing by, it might be in the street."

Still, upon Mrs. Rayneham's advice, Dora rang up Larose and told him the two 視察官s from Scotland Yard had been and were coming again on the morrow. It was 井戸／弁護士席 for Dora that she did not see the uneasy frown upon Larose's 直面する when he learnt who the 探偵，刑事s had been. However, he made light of the whole 事柄 and 慰安d her a lot by 明言する／公表するing he'd 運動 over to the Manor 早期に in the morning and give her some advice as to how to 取引，協定 with any questions they might be asked.

"I know them both やめる 井戸／弁護士席," he said, "and 視察官 石／投石する is an old friend of 地雷." He laughed. "He won't try any tricks with you if he sees I'm there with you."

However, as he hung up the receiver, he 発言／述べるd to himself, "Poor little woman, it couldn't be worse with old Charlie 石／投石する happening to be on the 事例／患者! He's as wily as a fox and as wise as any serpent."

The next morning Larose arrived at the Manor just as they had finished breakfast and had a good talk with the three conspirators. He was delighted to see Dora was looking やめる 静める and collected.

"Now, don't you be too meek and too 強いるing, Lady Stroud," he advised. "Be a bit haughty with them, as if you were annoyed at 存在 questioned at all, and, if it seems to you they're beginning to get dangerous, just 辞退する point-blank to answer any more questions at all. Remember, they can't make you."

"What do you mean about their getting dangerous?" asked Dora with a frown.

"井戸／弁護士席, if they want you to go 支援する year by year as to what your life has been, stop them long before they get 近づく the three months you spent at that 学校／設ける. Don't wait until they're 権利 on 最高の，を越す of it and have to pull yourself up then. Stop them when you see the red light going up."

"She will be all 権利," said Jocelyn confidently. "Now that she's got over the first shock she's got the courage of a lioness."

"And you, young man," smiled Larose, "take it as a joke. Look amused, but don't talk too much, for remember 視察官 石／投石する is a very dangerous man and never more dangerous than when he is speaking in a fatherly and kindly way." He paused and then 追加するd, "One more bit of advice to both you and Lady Stroud. Take care what you do with your 手渡すs when he is 尋問 you, as he'll watch them やめる as closely as he does your 直面するs. So many people give themselves away then, for when they're 存在 asked ぎこちない questions or are telling a fib they're apt to clench their 手渡すs together tightly. You remember that."

To the 救済 of everyone, the butler （機の）カム in to 発表する that the two 視察官s had arrived and, at a nod from Larose, Mrs. Rayneham told him to bring them into the room. 石／投石する scowled to himself when he saw his old 同僚 of the Yard was の中で those 現在の.

"We are all here, 視察官," said Mrs. Rayneham 静かに. She introduced Dora and young Jocelyn and 追加するd smilingly, "Mr. Larose, of course, you know. I rang him last night and told him you were coming, and, as he knows us all 井戸／弁護士席 and is very 利益／興味d about poor Dr. Simeon, he said he'd like to 運動 over and hear all the news."

"Of course he would," said 石／投石する. He fibbed gracefully. "Still, I'm glad he's come as he's often helped me when I've been at a dead end."

They all sat 負かす／撃墜する and the two 探偵，刑事s 注目する，もくろむd Dora most intently. 石／投石する thought she was of the very type to have had secrets in her life and to be 井戸／弁護士席 able to guard them, too. She was no weakling, and it was going to be hard to make her 収容する／認める anything she didn't want to. As for 視察官 Mendel's thoughts—his opinion was she was beautiful enough to have 奮起させるd any 罪，犯罪 of passion. Always sentimentally inclined, he hoped, however, she had not anything to hide.

石／投石する turned at once to Dora. "Of course," he said with his nice, fatherly smile, "Mrs. Rayneham has told you what our ideas are and so there is no need for me to go over the ground there." His 発言する／表明する 常習的な ever so little. "You understand we are looking for some lady who was in the 支持を得ようと努めるd with Dr. Simeon when he met with his death?"

Dora was 冷淡な and unruffled. "And you have 選ぶd upon me?" she queried scornfully.

石／投石する looked horrified. "Oh dear no," he exclaimed at once, "we have 選ぶd upon no one." He pretended to look uncomfortable. "It is only that you fill so many of our 必要物／必要条件s that we are bound to be curious about you. You are in the habit of wearing a 長，率いる-kerchief and——" but he broke off 突然の, and taking out of his pocket the two kerchiefs Mrs. Rayneham had lent him, he 手渡すd them 支援する to her with a 屈服する. "That village girl," he said, "is やめる sure neither of them is the actual one she 設立する, though she thinks the one with Lady Stroud's monogram upon it is 正確に／まさに like it, except that it is not frayed at one corner as was the one she washed and アイロンをかけるd." He laughed. "So, we really got nothing to help us there."

He turned to Dora again. "Yes, the points that 利益／興味 us are—you wear a kerchief and were probably wearing one that afternoon as it was a 風の強い day. That is so, is it not?"

Dora nodded casually and he went on, "Then you are certainly attractive enough to have 利益／興味d a man of Dr. Simeon's type, whom we learn was 悪名高くも fond of the ladies, and the third thing—you were absent from the house at the same time as he was."

"But I was with her all the time," broke in the 中尉／大尉／警部補 はっきりと.

石／投石する regarded him smilingly. "Of course, of course, but I hadn't forgotten that." He turned 支援する to Dora.

"Now the first thing that strikes us, Lady Stroud, is why, if you were going to the 地位，任命する office, you did not take the easier and shorter way by the path through the 支持を得ようと努めるd, instead of going so much さらに先に through the 運動 and 一連の会議、交渉／完成する by the road."

"The path isn't the easier way," said Dora a little tartly, "for a woman wearing ordinary shoes. It is rough and uneven and you have to 選ぶ your steps in many places. Also, my 目的 in going out that afternoon was not to 地位，任命する those letters. Mrs. Rayneham 示唆するd I should take them when I told her I was going for a walk. It was やめる an afterthought."

"And you carried the letters in your 手渡す?" 示唆するd 石／投石する.

"No, 中尉／大尉／警部補 Jocelyn put them in his jacket pocket."

石／投石する went on another 跡をつける. "Now we understand you were a hospital nurse before you married? Then in what hospital were you? Oh, St. Jude's! And how long were you there? A little longer than four years! Any 私的な nursing?"

"Very little," replied Dora, "only about seven or eight months."

"And how long have you been married, may I ask."

"About four years and a half," replied Dora.

石／投石する considered. "Then it is getting on for ten years since you started upon your nursing career! Where were you living before then?"

"In フラン, in Bordeaux. I was born there."

石／投石する's eyebrows went up. "Oh, then you are French."

"No, my parents were both English."

"You say were," commented 石／投石する. "Then they are dead?"

"Yes, they died suddenly within a few months of each other," replied Dora.

"And then you （機の）カム here to England?" queried 石／投石する.

Dora ゆらめくd up. "What do you want to know all this for?" she asked はっきりと. "It can have nothing to do with Dr. Simeon's death."

The 視察官 was very 患者. "井戸／弁護士席, what was your father's 指名する"—he paused a few moments—"and his 占領／職業?"

Dora spoke やめる calmly. "I shall not tell you," she said. "That is my own 私的な 事件／事情／状勢."

A short silence followed, which, however, was broken suddenly, by 視察官 Mendel 演説（する）／住所ing Dora in やめる good French. "Better tell him, Lady Stroud," he said smilingly, "as we can so easily find out from your marriage 証明書. Besides, I am sure you have no 推論する／理由 for making a mystery of anything."

Dora regarded him in 広大な／多数の／重要な surprise. "Fancy an English 探偵，刑事 speaking French!" she exclaimed. "I am astonished."

The young 視察官 laughed. "Why should you be?" he asked. "I 熟考する／考慮するd French so as to be able to read their 記録，記録的な／記録するs of 罪，犯罪, and I have spent several holidays in フラン. Why, I have even visited your beautiful city of Bordeaux!"

Dora turned at once to 視察官 石／投石する. "My father's 指名する was Dane," she said. "Birtle Dane. He was in the ワイン 貿易（する） and his place of 商売／仕事 was upon the quai des Etoiles in Bordeaux."

"Thank you, Lady Stroud," said 石／投石する most politely, "and now I'll go 支援する to the time you were at St. Jude's." He spoke casually. "I suppose you met plenty of different doctors when you were there?"

"Come to the point at once, Mr. 視察官," said Dora はっきりと, "and ask me, if の中で them I had met Dr. Simeon." She spoke emphatically. "No, I had not, and I'd never even heard his 指名する until he arrived here as a fellow 訪問者 that Friday evening. It was やめる a new one to me."

"But come, Lady Stroud," said 石／投石する rather sceptically, "he was a 井戸／弁護士席-known practitioner in the West End, wasn't he?"

"But I was in the East End," retorted Dora はっきりと, "and unless he had written some 基準 調書をとる／予約する and it was in the hospital library it is not likely I nor any of the other nurses either would have been likely to have heard of him."

A long silence followed and then 石／投石する asked finally, "Then you 明言する／公表する definitely that you had had no 知識 with the doctor before he （機の）カム here and you didn't lose a 長，率いる-kerchief upon that Sunday afternoon?"

"My answer to both questions," replied Dora emphatically, "is no."

石／投石する turned to 中尉／大尉／警部補 Jocelyn, and he was as smiling and polite as ever. "You are a 広大な／多数の／重要な friend of Lady Stroud's, are you not?"

Young Jocelyn grinned. "As far as one can be after knowing her for about a fortnight." He regarded Dora admiringly. "I should say she is a lady every man would like to be on good 条件 with."

"正確に／まさに," nodded 石／投石する. "I やめる agree with you there." He frowned. "By the by, you didn't find that 負傷させるd pheasant you were looking for, did you?"

"Oh, didn't I?" laughed Jocelyn. "I went 支援する later with Toby, the fox terrier here, and got him at once."

For a moment it might have been the 視察官 showed his 失望. "Then what did you do with it?" he asked. "I suppose it's eaten by now."

"No, by Jove it isn't," said Jocelyn. He grinned again. "A pheasant out of season is very much of a white elephant in a house like this where the master is a 治安判事 sworn to 支持する the game 法律s. My aunt, Mrs. Rayneham, wouldn't 許す it to be cooked, and so I'm waiting to take it with me when I go 支援する to Town where they're not so particular."

"Show it to them, Harry," said Dora rather spitefully. "Of course, they think it was a lost kerchief of 地雷 I'd sent you to look for in that field"—her lips curved scornfully—"four days after I was supposed to have lost it."

"All 権利," said Jocelyn. He turned to the 視察官s. "I'll take you to where I've got it hidden when you're finished here."

明らかに they had finished already, as with smiles and polite 屈服するs all 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the two 視察官s took their leave, followed outside the house by young Jocelyn and Larose.

"But do you really want to see that pheasant?" asked the 中尉／大尉／警部補 with a frown. "Can't you take my word for it?"

It was Mendel who replied. "We never take anybody's word, sir," he smiled. "Our calling makes us most 怪しげな men."

"And if I can't produce it," asked Jocelyn, "what then?"

Mendel was still smiling. "We shall think you put up a good bluff," he said, "and we shall look その上の then for the 推論する／理由 for your untruth."

Jocelyn grinned. "Come on then. I'll show it to you," and he led them some hundred yards away to one of the potting sheds in the garden. From underneath the coat hanging up behind the door he produced the bird which the younger 視察官 proceeded to 扱う curiously.

"A broken wing, certainly," he 発言／述べるd with a frown, "but as there's no puffiness or swelling 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the break, it must have received the 傷害 very の直前に you caught it."

"Probably it had," commented Jocelyn carelessly, a little bit uneasy, however, at the shrewdness of the 探偵，刑事. "I reckon it had banged into those telegraph wires on the other 味方する of the road."

Walking 支援する to the police car, Larose lagged a little bit behind with 視察官 石／投石する. "井戸／弁護士席, are you 満足させるd, Charlie?" he asked.

"No, I damned 井戸／弁護士席 am not," replied the 視察官 はっきりと. "Instinct tells me there's much more in it than we've 設立する out." He nodded に向かって Jocelyn's 支援する. "I reckon there was a 井戸／弁護士席-thought-out 共謀 between that boy and those two women"—he glared at Larose—"and I wouldn't like to 断言する you had not put them up to a trick or two."

Larose grinned. "Good Lord, Charlie, you're always 怪しげな about me. What's biting you now?"

"Nothing much," grunted 石／投石する, "but that Lady Stroud had got her fingers stretched out stiffly the whole time I was 尋問 her. No, by Jove, there was going to be no clenching of those pretty 手渡すs for her."

The three conspirators were やめる relieved when the 視察官s had gone, feeling the latter had 設立する out nothing more to 正当化する their 疑惑s. However, the very next morning poor Dora, to her 広大な／多数の／重要な 苦しめる, was to learn that yet another person was 株ing the secret of how Dr. Simeon had met his death.

Going into the garden to 選ぶ some flowers for Mrs. Rayneham, she suddenly became aware that the under-gardener was walking up に向かって her. His gait was rather unsteady, and when he touched his cap and stopped to speak to her, she knew at once that he had been drinking.

"Good for you, little Dora," he hiccuped in a hoarse whisper. "I'm damned glad you 発射 that old devil. I wasn't far from you that afternoon, but saw you'd got all the help you 手配中の，お尋ね者 in that young 中尉／大尉／警部補, and so kept out of sight." He hiccuped again. "I knew that Simeon 井戸／弁護士席 and would have killed him myself if I could! Good luck to you, old sweetheart, you're やめる 安全な with me. I'd hang rather than give you away."

Dora was speechless in her びっくり仰天. Her heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 painfully and she felt she could not breathe. However, there was no occasion for her to say anything, as Chalmers, touching his cap with a grin, took himself off at once.

Dora sat 負かす／撃墜する on a nearby seat to compose herself. Oh, God, was her trouble never to end? How awful to think that one word from Eric and the police would be coming for her at once! Certainly she knew he would never say a word if he were sober, but when he had had too much to drink it was やめる possible he might 誇る of what he knew. Then if it reached the ears of the 探偵，刑事s it might start all their enquiries over again!

Still, she realised she could do nothing and must 耐える all this 苦悩 herself. Of course she couldn't tell either Mrs. Rayneham or Jocelyn. It would only 追加する to their worries and could not かもしれない do any good. Certainly she might confide in Larose, but he would not be able to do anything, either. She sighed ひどく. No, she must just wait and see what would happen. Time alone would tell her whether she was 安全な.

Then suddenly all her courage seemed to come 支援する. She would be 勇敢に立ち向かう about it! She wouldn't let it worry her! After all, the chances of Eric Chalmers 説 nothing were 大いに in her favour, and if he did say anything when he was drunk, she was 確かな he would 否定する it all when he was sober. No, she would put the whole thing out of her mind and not give it another thought! She would not 心配する that misfortune was going to come to her, and would not worry until it had 現実に come.

So in the last few days of her stay at the Manor no one appeared brighter and in better spirits than she, and when the に引き続いて week she said good-bye to them all, her hostess 発言／述べるd 残念に that it was like a ray of 日光 going out of the house.

When she had been home about a week the 延期，休会するd 検死 upon Dr. Simeon's death was held and Mrs. Rayneham wrote her a long account about it. It appeared the police had 手配中の，お尋ね者 a 判決 of '設立する 溺死するd' to be brought in, but to their annoyance the 陪審／陪審員団 had 全員一致で and with no hesitation brought in one of '偶発の death'.

"And that under-gardener of ours, Henry 支持を得ようと努めるd, was splendid," wrote Mrs. Rayneham. "Of course, the 判決 was all 予定 to him. As foreman of the 陪審／陪審員団 he 発揮するd a 広大な／多数の／重要な 影響（力） over the others, and he told us afterwards that he wasn't going to let the 中傷する of any mystery as to the doctor's death hang over us here at the Manor. Mr. Rayneham was so pleased with him that he raised his 給料 at once. A rather mysterious man, that 支持を得ようと努めるd! I am やめる sure he puts on his rough way of talking and, if he chose, could speak like a gentleman. It's only drink that has brought him 負かす／撃墜する. There's no 疑問 about that."

Dora had been home only a couple of weeks when the 嵐／襲撃する which had been so long 脅すing broke over the world and the Second World War started. The terrible danger in which the whole British Empire stood was not 一般に realised, but for all that with those who were 'in the know' prospects were not considered too 有望な. Sir Richard and Dora threw themselves whole-heartedly into helping in every way they could, Sir Richard at once 申し込む／申し出ing nearly the whole of Marden 法廷，裁判所 to the 当局 for turning into a 軍の hospital, with Dora to help with the nursing of the 患者s.

With every moment of her day fully 占領するd Dora no longer gave any thought to her 私的な troubles, confidently regarding the whole 事柄 of Dr. Simeon's death as a の近くにd 一時期／支部 in her life. Corresponding often with Mrs. Rayneham, she learnt from her that 中尉／大尉／警部補 Jocelyn had disappeared into the blue upon active service, and it was believed he was upon a 破壊者 in the Mediterranean.

Then one morning, 大いに to her uneasiness, Mrs. Rayneham rang up, 説 she must see her at once about something which had happened.

"I can't tell you over the phone, dear," she said, "but the 事柄 is really very 緊急の. I'll go up to Town tonight, and so can you 会合，会う me at the Belvedere Hotel, say at eleven to-morrow morning? Yes, you must put off everything to come."

So it was with a rather palpitating heart that Dora met her friend as arranged and was at once taken up to the latter's room.

"I have some very disquieting news for you, Dora, dear," she said breathlessly. Her 発言する／表明する choked. "That under-gardener of ours, Henry 支持を得ようと努めるd, was caught on Tuesday night, 現行犯で, burgling 陸軍大佐 Benson's house. He had come after the silver. There was another man with him, but he got away."

"Oh, Nina," exclaimed Dora incredulously, "what a dreadful thing!"

"The に引き続いて day he was brought before the 治安判事s in Norwich," went on Mrs. Rayneham, "and 再拘留（者）d until next week." She could hardly get out her words. "Then my husband has heard they are going to bring another 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 against him—oh, Dora, what shall we do?" she wailed. "The police are going to 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 him with having 殺人d Dr. Simeon."

Dora's 膝s trembled under her and she sank 負かす／撃墜する into a 議長，司会を務める. "But, but——" she began.

"Oh, the 証拠 is very 黒人／ボイコット against him," exclaimed Mrs. Rayneham fearfully. "In his cottage in the mattress of his bed they discovered the wrist-watch Dr. Simeon had been wearing and, worse than that, they'd 設立する out he'd known the doctor for a long time and once had attacked him and would have 不正に 負傷させるd him if the doctor's friends hadn't pulled him off. Then he wrote the doctor a letter 説 he'd kill him one day if he had to wait twenty years, and they've got the letter."

She spoke much more calmly now and went on, "You remember at the 延期，休会するd 検死 how angry the police were because the 陪審／陪審員団 had brought in a 判決 of 偶発の death when they 手配中の，お尋ね者 one of 設立する 溺死するd. We know why that was now. The doctor's sister had 設立する の中で his papers the 脅すing letter and 手渡すd it over to them. So they knew the doctor had an enemy and were trying to find out who he was. There was no 演説（する）／住所 upon the letter, but it was 調印するd boldly, 'Eric Chalmers'."

She drew in a 深い breath and went on, "Then this week the housekeeper of Dr. Simeon's flat went to the 探偵，刑事s at Scotland Yard and gave them the very （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） they 手配中の，お尋ね者. She told them that when she had …に出席するd the first 検死 she was sure she had recognised the foreman of the 陪審／陪審員団 as someone she had seen before, but she couldn't remember who he was. Then suddenly, she said, after all these weeks it had come 支援する to her. He was an artist, Eric Chalmers, and he and the doctor had once been very friendly. He had come to the flat two or three times, but one night there had been a violent quarrel, about some woman, she thinks, and this Chalmers had 掴むd the doctor by the throat and would have strangled him if the others hadn't pulled him off. Then, while the others were struggling with him, the doctor had kicked him and broken some of his ribs and he had to be taken to a hospital. That's what she told the 探偵，刑事s, and of course they （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する to the village at once, to find that, only a few hours before, our Henry 支持を得ようと努めるd had come into the 手渡すs of the 地元の police for burgling." She was almost upon the 瀬戸際 of 涙／ほころびs. "Oh, what a dreadful thing it all is!"

Dora herself felt sick with 逮捕, but with Mrs. Rayneham's 苦しめる so 明らかな and mindful that she, Dora, was the 原因（となる） of it all, she pulled herself resolutely together and even 軍隊d a smile.

"Don't worry, Nina," she said. "There's no chance of him 存在 設立する 有罪の of 殺人 簡単に because he made the 脅し. They'll have to 証明する he killed him and they'll never be able to do that."

"No, of course not," said Mrs. Rayneham, brightening up, "and perhaps he'll have a 完全にする アリバイ."

"I 推定する／予想する he will," agreed Dora, "and he'll almost certainly say he 選ぶd the watch up somewhere the next morning."

"井戸／弁護士席, what are we to do?" asked Mrs. Rayneham. "He must have a good lawyer to defend him."

"Of course he must," agreed Dora, "and I'll speak to Mr. Larose at once about him. Oh, what a mercy it is Mr. Larose （機の）カム to lunch that day and I got to know him!"

（犯罪の）一味ing up Carmel Abbey at once, to her 広大な／多数の／重要な 救済 Dora learnt Larose would be in Town on the morrow, and it was arranged she should 会合，会う him at his hotel at twelve o'clock. Mrs. Rayneham returned home 大いに 慰安d by the thought that they had him behind them.

The に引き続いて morning Dora was in the lounge waiting for Larose and 直接／まっすぐに he arrived they seated themselves there in a secluded corner. "Of course I know what you want me for," smiled Larose at once. "I've heard all about it from 陸軍大佐 Mayne, the 長，指導者 Constable, who's a 広大な／多数の／重要な friend of 地雷 同様に as of Mrs. Rayneham, and first of all we shall have to see that this chap has a good lawyer to defend him."

"But you don't know everything," exclaimed Dora plaintively. "You don't know half." She spoke very solemnly. "Years ago, Mr. Larose, I knew this Eric Chalmers, before drink had made him the sodden man he is now, and for a time we fancied we were in love with each other. Not only that—but he was in the 支持を得ようと努めるd that Sunday afternoon and saw everything which happened. He saw me shoot Dr. Simeon."

Larose's 注目する，もくろむs opened very wide. "Goodness gracious!" he exclaimed in obvious びっくり仰天. "What a dreadful 複雑化!"

"But not so dreadful in the way you think," said Dora 即時に, "as at 底（に届く） all his instincts are those of a gentleman and I know he'd never give me away. He knows his life is 廃虚d, and I believe his only feeling would be one of 救済 if he knew he were going to be hanged."

She told Larose the whole story of her one-time friendship with Chalmers and how, since it was broken off, she had not seen him again until their 会合 in the Manor garden.

Larose listened attentively, and when she had finished her story a long minute elapsed before he spoke. "And you have told no one," he asked, "what you have just told me, not even Mrs. Rayneham or 中尉／大尉／警部補 Jocelyn?"

She shook her 長，率いる. "The 中尉／大尉／警部補 is upon active service and no one knows where he is. Thank goodness he's out of it. As for Mrs. Rayneham, poor soul, she's worried enough as it is by befriending me, and I'm not going to pile on the agony there. No, no one knows but you that I had ever met Eric Chalmers before or that he was 現在の in the 支持を得ようと努めるd that afternoon."

"And your husband knows nothing of the 事柄," said Larose, "from first to last?"

"Nothing at all," said Dora, looking very worried. "I hate deceiving him because, as I've told you, we have such a perfect 信用 in each other, but now it has gone so far I think it kinder to say nothing until he has to know."

Larose nodded in 協定. "And that time may never come." He smiled his 肉親，親類d and 安心させるing smile. "At any 率, we'll hope it won't." He considered for a few moments. "Now I think I'll go at once and have a talk with this Chalmers. I'll make out to the 長，指導者 Constable that I was a friend of his in his 繁栄する days, and I'm sure he'll let me see him." He frowned. "You say Chalmers comes of a good family."

Dora nodded. "Yes, and though they've long since thrown him off I'm sure everything will come as a terrible shock to them."

"Of course, he'll get penal servitude for this 押し込み強盗," said Larose, "but he'll be tried on the 資本／首都 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 first and that's all that 関心s us." He became きびきびした and 商売／仕事-like. "Now can you 供給する the money for his defence without your husband knowing? It'll cost a good bit, you know."

"Oh, yes," replied Dora. "Soon after we were married my husband settled &続けざまに猛撃する;40,000 upon me, so there'll be no difficulty about that."

"Good," said Larose, "then everything can be done through me and my lawyers, and we'll 簡潔な／要約する the very best man we can to defend him. We'll have to get a good man, because of course he'll be tried at the Norwich Assize and in all probability Angus-Forbes will be the 検察官，検事 for the 栄冠を与える there." He shook his 長，率いる. "He's a clever and dangerous man is Angus-Forbes, one of the most relentless King's Counsels practising in the 刑事裁判所s."

Dora sighed ひどく. "What sort of a man is he?"

"Not much to look at," replied Larose, "and somewhere about fifty I should say. But he's got a 発言する／表明する like a church bell and, rightly or wrongly, can sway 陪審／陪審員団s a lot by the very 軍隊 of an impelling personality."

Dora made no comment. She looked 負かす／撃墜する so that Larose should not see the 表現 upon her 直面する. She dared not, however, let her thoughts wander and looked up quickly again. She knew she had still the most important thing to say to Larose, and she tried to make her 発言する／表明する 安定した when she spoke.

"Of course, Mr. Larose," she said, "I should not let him hang. If he is 設立する 有罪の I shall own up at once." Her 発言する／表明する shook ever so little. "The consequences will be terrible, but I should have to 直面する them."

Larose took it as a 事柄 of course. "Only what I 推定する／予想するd of you, Lady Stroud," he smiled, "but we won't talk of it now." He took out his watch. "The most important thing for the moment is that we're going to have lunch."

The meal was やめる a 有望な one and, by an unspoken 協定, no その上の について言及する was made of the 事柄 which had brought them together. In parting, with 涙／ほころびs in her 注目する，もくろむs, Dora thanked Larose for his 広大な／多数の／重要な 親切 to her. "You've been so good," she whispered, "that I feel I'd like to give you a good 抱擁する."

Larose smiled all over his 直面する. "井戸／弁護士席, there would be no 反対 on my part," he said. He squeezed her 手渡す, and his smile became something of a frown. "The trouble with all us men," he went on, "is that however strong may be our 賞賛 and affection for one particular woman, when another 望ましい one comes along we always seem to be able to squeeze out a little more 賞賛 and affection for her," and Dora gave him a roguish smile, as if she やめる understood.

CHAPTER X. — THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW

THANKS to the 影響（力） of the 長，指導者 Constable, Larose was 許すd to have his conversation with Eric Chalmers just out of earshot of the attendant warder, and, 伸び（る）ing his 信用／信任 with no difficulty, 設立する him very much as he had 推定する／予想するd from Dora's description he would, casual, bored and very tired of life, not worrying at all as to what might be going to happen to him. Indeed, he appeared to be deriving such satisfaction from the way the so detested doctor had come to his end that he 認める 率直に that he was half-minded not to put up any defence and 許す himself to be hanged for a 殺人 he had not committed.

However, when Larose pulled him up very はっきりと and told him with the 最大の sternness that there must be no nonsense like that, as, if he were 設立する 有罪の, Dora was ーするつもりであるing to come 今後 and 自白する everything, he changed his tune at once.

"What I was afraid of," he scowled. "I thought she might be wanting to do something like that, though it's damned silliness to 廃虚 her life to save a rotten one like 地雷. She's got everything to live for, and I've got nothing. Several times lately I've thought of finishing myself off."

"井戸／弁護士席, you can please yourself and do as you like about that," said Larose grimly, "when this 事件／事情／状勢 is over, but until then you've got to fight your hardest to 保護する Lady Stroud."

"All 権利," he said. "I'll give them a good run for their money, and I don't see how they'll be able to get a 有罪の判決." He made a grimace. "I suppose Lady Stroud is going to waste a lot of money on my defence."

"She's not going to waste it," said Larose, "but you're going to have the best lawyers and best counsel we can get. We're 要点説明 Bernard Harcourt. You couldn't get a better man, and——"

"I know him," said Chalmers with a grin. "We used to get tight together at the Varsity, but he knocked it off while I let it get a 持つ／拘留する of me." A thought （機の）カム to him, and he asked はっきりと, "But how did the damned police come to connect me with Simeon at all? Oh, that housekeeper at his flat! I saw her 星／主役にするing devilish hard at me at the 検死, but, nothing happening, I thought she couldn't place me and so felt やめる 安全な."

"And they've got that letter you wrote, too," said Larose, "脅すing you'd 殺人 the doctor if you have to wait twenty years for the chance."

Chalmers's jaw dropped. "The devil!" he exclaimed ruefully. "Fancy his keeping it all this time. It must be やめる four years since we had that 列／漕ぐ／騒動." He clenched his teeth together. "He was a devil, that Simeon. When his pals were 持つ／拘留するing me tight so that I couldn't get at him he broke two of my ribs with his 臆病な／卑劣な kicks, and I've never really 回復するd from the 傷害. Do you wonder I 脅すd him?"

The 続いて起こるing weeks were dreadful for Dora, and she had difficulty in keeping from her husband the low spirits she was in. With the war news filling the papers, there was little について言及する in them of the 来たるべき 裁判，公判, and she had to depend upon Mrs. Rayneham and Larose for every 捨てる of （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） there.

Counsel was very 希望に満ちた there would be an 無罪放免, said Mrs. Rayneham, but agreed such a lot depended upon who the 裁判長 happened to be. They would not know that, however, until almost the last moment. Poor Dora lost a lot of her pretty colour under the 緊張する, but, happily for her peace of mind, her husband put it 負かす／撃墜する to her war work and was always 勧めるing her to take things more easily. Engaged as he was upon some 'hush-hush' 商売／仕事 for the 政府, she saw very little of him; いつかs he did not come home for longer than a week at a time.

The day for the 裁判，公判 （機の）カム の近くに at last. It was to open on a Tuesday, and on the 先行する Saturday morning Larose rang up with the startling news that Lord Merrildon was going to be the 裁判長.

"Bernard Harcourt is やめる cheerful about it," he said, "and so am I. There's nothing hard or 厳しい about his lordship and he'll pull Angus-Forbes up very はっきりと if he tries to いじめ（る） or 脅迫してさせる the 陪審／陪審員団."

"From what I saw of him at Mrs. Rayneham's," sighed Dora, "I thought him very 肉親，親類d and 同情的な."

"But he's rather a peculiar man," said Larose. "In 私的な life, as you say, no one could be more 肉親，親類d than he, but upon the （法廷の）裁判 he's very strict and 厳しい and a 広大な／多数の／重要な upholder of the sanctity of the 法律. In his final 演説（する）／住所 to the 陪審／陪審員団 there is never any 控訴，上告 to 感情, just an impartial 重さを計るing up of all the facts that have been 現在のd to them."

Larose's summing up of Lord Merrildon's character left Dora very uneasy in her mind. If only she dare lay everything before him, what a difference it might make in how he advised the 陪審／陪審員団 in his last words to them.

That night it was many hours before she could get to sleep and she was devoutly thankful her husband was not with her, as he would have undoubtedly noticed how upset she was. に向かって morning, however, she fell into a troubled and unrestful sleep, waking up then to a sudden 決意／決議.

She would go and see Lord Merrildon, and tell him everything, no 事柄 how angry she was sure she would make him by 試みる／企てるing to 影響（力） him in a 事例／患者 he was about to try.

Fortunately, her husband was not coming home that week-end and she had the whole day 解放する／自由な to do 正確に／まさに as she 手配中の，お尋ね者 to.

（犯罪の）一味ing up his lordship very 早期に at his house in Saffron Walden, as she had 推定する／予想するd he would be upon a Sunday, she 設立する he was at home. Telling him she 手配中の，お尋ね者 his advice upon a very important 事柄, he was most 肉親，親類d and said she could come any time she like. As it happened, his wife was away and he would be alone and 解放する／自由な all day.

It was only a seventy-mile 旅行, and すぐに after eleven she was shown in to him in his 熟考する／考慮する. Her spirits rose as he 迎える／歓迎するd her with such obvious 楽しみ.

"No, don't apologise," he smiled. "I shall be very pleased to do anything I can for you," he laughed. "Both my wife and I took a 広大な／多数の／重要な fancy to you when we met at Mrs. Rayneham's and we've often talked about you, but we still can't remember of whom you remind us, though we've puzzled over it やめる a lot."

"Lord Merrildon," began Dora, with a 広大な／多数の／重要な 成果／努力 安定したing her 発言する／表明する, "it's a very sad story I have to tell you, and it begins about eleven years ago. A young girl friend of 地雷, losing both her parents very suddenly when she was only nineteen, went to London to find work. For three months she was 雇うd as an attendant at a いわゆる Health 学校／設ける run by a woman I will call Madame, who was 補助装置d in the work by a brother and a cousin. Massage and diet were supposed to be what the 学校／設ける was run for, but in reality a 広大な／多数の／重要な part of the money was earned by 成し遂げるing 違法な 操作／手術s. This girl had no part in them, for whenever they were going to be done she was sent out upon some errand so that she should not know what was taking place. However, she soon began to have her 疑惑s and in time became 確かな she knew what was going on."

Dora paused to draw in a 深い breath, and went on. "I must について言及する here that a very 井戸／弁護士席-dressed, professional-looking man used to come to the 学校／設ける from time to time to have 私的な talk with Madame. His 指名する was never について言及するd, but Madame called him Doctor, and the girl 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd he went to the 私的な homes of her 患者s when anything went wrong. She knew for 確かな that Madame had once paid him a hundred 続けざまに猛撃するs. This doctor never 現実に spoke to my girl-friend, but he used to 星／主役にする at her hard when he （機の）カム and she took him to be a man whom any decent girl who was even passably good-looking would not care to know."

"Go on, Lady Stroud," said his lordship kindly, as Dora had stopped speaking and was biting hard upon her lip to 支配（する）／統制する her emotion. "Don't 苦しめる yourself. I am taking it all in."

"井戸／弁護士席, now I come to something terrible," said Dora. "One day returning 突然に 早期に from one of these errands upon which she had been sent, my friend heard Madame wailing over the phone to someone that a 患者 she had just been …に出席するing had 崩壊（する）d and died, and asking this someone to come at once. From the conversation which went on it was evident, however, that this someone wouldn't come and was advising Madame to wait until night and then take the 団体／死体 to somewhere in the country and leave it there. Then, if the 患者 had never told anyone she was coming to the 学校／設ける, nothing might ever be 設立する out."

"What a dreadful position for your friend," commented his lordship frowningly, "to have become mixed up with people like that."

"Yes, and she realised it," went on Dora, "and was terrified that, as an attendant at the 学校／設ける, she might be drawn into it. So she 急ぐd out straight away, ーするつもりであるing never to return again. However, she was so furious with the wicked woman for another 推論する／理由 that she at once went into a telephone booth and rang up the police, telling them what had happened and that there was a dead 患者 at the 学校／設ける."

"A good 活動／戦闘," nodded Lord Merrildon, "and of course the police went at once?"

"Yes, for it appears they had had their 疑惑s of this Madame for some time," said Dora. "They went and caught her and her brother and cousin 現行犯で putting the 団体／死体 into an ottoman to take it away. All three were sent to penal servitude."

"And your girl-friend?" asked his lordship with a peculiar 表現 upon his 直面する.

"That same afternoon," said Dora, "she moved from where she had been living and the police never 設立する her; indeed, she never knew whether they had looked for her." She went on slowly and with some difficulty. "Longer than ten years went by. This girl had made a good marriage and was very happy. Then one afternoon when she was staying at a friend's house in the country another 訪問者 arrived, and to her horror she recognised him as the doctor who used to come occasionally to that dreadful 学校／設ける and 星／主役にする at her so hard every time he （機の）カム. She thought at first that he had not recognised her, but he had, and the next day, catching her alone, he 掴むd 持つ／拘留する of her, and, in spite of her struggling hard, kissed her 強制的に. He dared her to complain to anyone, as he said there was still a 令状 out for her 逮捕（する） for having helped Madame in those 操作／手術s, and if she did he would tell the police where she was. Believing what he told her, she realised she was 完全に in his 力／強力にする and that he was ーするつもりであるing to ゆすり，恐喝 her in every way he could."

Dora was almost choking here, and for a few moments could not go on. The 裁判官 was now frowning hard, but made no comment, and the silence in the room was hard and 緊張した. At length she went on.

"The next day a dreadful thing happened, for this doctor caught her, 突然に alone again, but this time outdoors in a 支持を得ようと努めるd not very far from the house. He had gone there to shoot some birds and had a small ライフル銃／探して盗む with him. He 掴むd 持つ／拘留する of her, but in the struggle which followed she turned his ライフル銃／探して盗む on him and 発射 him dead."

She spoke very 静かに now with a 急ぐ of words. "She told no one what had happened, and at first it was thought he had accidentally 発射 himself, but later a servant of the house became 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd and now he's going to be tried for 殺人." Her 発言する／表明する broke and she 追加するd falteringly: "That is my story, my lord, and——"

"The servant is the man I am going to try next week," said Lord Merrildon, very 厳しく, "and the woman who 発射 that doctor is you."

Dora made no 試みる／企てる at any 否定 and, covering her 直面する with her 手渡すs, broke into 静かな and gentle sobs.

"You have done very wrong," went on the 裁判官 in 冷淡な and solemn トンs. "When you had 発射 that wretch, at all costs to yourself, you should have had the courage to tell what had happened. Now look at the position you yourself are in and the dreadful one in which you have placed that unfortunate man, （刑事）被告 of a 罪，犯罪 he did not commit."

"But I shall not let him be hanged," said Dora ひどく. "If he is 設立する 有罪の I shall own up to everything."

"But you must consider," went on the 裁判官, with a 深い frown, "the mental anguish he must be in, 直面するing as he does the prospect of a dreadful death. Does not your 良心 苦しめる you there?"

"No, it does not," retorted Dora 即時に, "as he knows やめる 井戸／弁護士席 he will not be hanged. I have sent him word what I am going to do if he's 設立する 有罪の. He knows, too, that it is I who killed Dr. Simeon, as he was in that 支持を得ようと努めるd at the time and saw everything that happened."

"Then why hasn't he told anyone?" 需要・要求するd the 裁判官 in some astonishment.

Dora's 涙／ほころび-stained 直面する 紅潮／摘発するd. "Because, my lord," she said very 静かに, "he and I were sweethearts once. No, no, although he was only a gardener at the Manor he is not of that class. His father was the Archdeacon of Barchester Cathedral and he himself is a 卒業生（する） of Oxford. When I knew him years ago he was an artist, and it's only drink which has 廃虚d his life and brought him so low."

The 裁判官 注目する，もくろむd her very solemnly. "But do you not realise, young lady, into what contempt you are bringing the majesty of the 法律. By coming here to me as you have done you are making of it a farce by the trying of a known innocent man, and of me a puppet in having to 統括する over the 裁判，公判." He shook his 長，率いる. "I know you yourself have been placed in a horrible predicament, but"—he smiled sadly—"広大な／多数の／重要な as is my 賞賛 and 尊敬（する）・点 for you I can but 非難 you most 堅固に."

Dora was 乾燥した，日照りのing her 注目する，もくろむs. "But have you yourself never made an error of judgment," she asked, "or worse than that, failed in your 義務 when what you should have done was most 明確に before you? Does your 良心 never prick you, Lord Merrildon?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, looking very puzzled.

For a long moment Dora hesitated. Then she burst out, "Tell me, you were in フラン, were you not—in the late spring of 1909, in Bordeaux?"

The 裁判官 looked more puzzled than ever, but after a few moments of consideration, nodded, "Yes, I was."

"And to be exact, the month of June, was it not?" asked Dora. "The 早期に part of June?"

He considered again. "Yes, I think it was." He 星／主役にするd hard at her. "But why do you ask? Is it of any 利益／興味 to you?"

Dora's 発言する／表明する trembled now. "Yes, of 広大な／多数の／重要な 利益／興味," she replied. She spoke very slowly as if 重さを計るing every word. "Because it happens I was born in the に引き続いて year upon the twelfth of March." She held his 注目する，もくろむs with hers. "Yes, born in Bordeaux in a house upon the quai des Etoiles. The ground 床に打ち倒す of the building was 占領するd by a 会社／堅い of ワイン merchants, with my mother and her husband 占領するing the 床に打ち倒すs above." Her 発言する／表明する dropped almost to a whisper. "My mother's 指名する, my lord, was Mary Dane."

The 裁判官 星／主役にするd incredulously at her. Bereft of speech, he drew in a long 深い breath and his 直面する went a deathlike colour. His 注目する，もくろむs were wide and 星／主役にするing, his lips were parted, and little beads of sweat began to form upon his forehead. All his 宙に浮く and dignity gone, he 低迷d 支援する into his 議長，司会を務める the very picture of a 有罪の man. He looked at Dora as if she were an apparition risen from the dead.

Dora moved up の近くに to him. "Give me your 手渡す, please," she said imperatively. "No, your left one," and she laid hers beside it. "See our little fingers," she went on. "They're both crooked in the same way." She spoke very sadly. "My mother used often to kiss 地雷! I realise now because it reminded her of yours."

The 裁判官 spoke hoarsely. "Did she tell you all about me?" he asked.

Dora shook her 長，率いる. "No, she never said a word, but all my life long as far 支援する as I remember she brought me up as if I were not her husband's child. There was no affection between them. He was a horrid man. Mentally and 肉体的に, too, there was nothing in ありふれた between him and me, and from many, many things I grew to realise he could not かもしれない be my father. He died only a few weeks before my mother and then as she was dying she kept on asking for Athol. It was all 'Athol, Athol', and so I knew that must have been the 指名する of the lover she had once had."

涙／ほころびs 井戸／弁護士席d up into the 裁判官's 注目する，もくろむs, and all her ーするつもりであるd reproaches dying away at the sight of his 苦しめる, Dora, her own 注目する，もくろむs wet too, put her 武器 around his neck and nestled her cheek の近くに up against his. He clasped one of her 手渡すs so tightly that she almost called out with the 苦痛.

"And I 廃虚d her life," he choked. "I brought a 広大な／多数の／重要な unhappiness upon her."

"No, no, you didn't," 抗議するd Dora quickly. "On the contrary you gave her the only happiness she ever had in all her married life. She was always 十分な of hope, too, that one day she would be 解放する／自由な to return to England and, as I realise now, perhaps 会合，会う you again."

The 裁判官 was much calmer now, and something of his old self again. "And how long is it," he asked, "since you first thought you had 設立する out I was your father?"

"Only when I met you at the Raynehams'," replied Dora, "and one morning in the garden there this Eric Chalmers slipped me a piece of paper with James Athol Vaughan, Lord Merrildon, written upon it," and she went on to explain why he had done so. "Then when I saw your crooked little finger," she 結論するd, "I was 確かな I had 設立する you."

They talked on for a long while and then the 裁判官 said sadly, "Oh, how proud of you I should be if I could only 認める you 率直に!"

"And I of you, too," smiled Dora. "I was always so sure my father would turn out to be a handsome and distinguished man." She nodded. "At any 率 we can be proud of each other in secret."

The 裁判官 sighed 深く，強烈に. "But in what a dreadful predicament we are now. Things could hardly be worse."

"Of course they could be," said Dora はっきりと. "What you have to do is very simple. You must step 負かす／撃墜する from your high pedestal for once and forget all about the sanctity of the 法律. You must get Eric Chalmers off. Your summing-up to the 陪審／陪審員団 must wipe out everything that Angus-Forbes has said." She frowned. "But what a strange thing, is it not, that you have dropped the 指名する of Athol. Why are you not known by it now?"

"I dropped it when I was 認める to the practice of the 法律," replied the 裁判官. "I thought it sounded too theatrical."

Seated の近くに together and with him 持つ／拘留するing one of her 手渡すs, for an hour and longer, putting aside for the moment what had brought Dora there, as father and daughter they told each other a lot about the happenings of their lives.

"And I never forgot your mother," said the 裁判官, "but we had agreed it was best I should not approach again." He coloured up uncomfortably and 追加するd with a sad smile, "Of course I 非難する myself now beyond all words I can think of that it never seemed to enter my mind that you could have eventuated from the few short hours I spent with your mother. I was young and unthinking and——"

"Don't talk about it," said Dora はっきりと. She smiled. "No wonder both you and your Lady Merrildon thought you had seen me before. You saw in me my resemblance to my mother and she—my resemblance to you."

Harking 支援する to the 事柄 of the 来たるべき 裁判，公判, the 裁判官 asked thoughtfully, "Have they anything of a 事例／患者 against this Eric Chalmers?"

"Mr. Larose thinks not," said Dora. "He has been advising me all along," and she went on to relate how Chalmers had come to be 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd, after she herself had had to run the gauntlet of the two 探偵，刑事s from Scotland Yard.

"Ah, those two 視察官s are very clever men," frowned the 裁判官, "and it is remarkable how you （機の）カム to outwit them." He made a grimace. "Now you have dragged me into the 共謀, too."

Dora returned home in やめる a 希望に満ちた 明言する／公表する of mind. She was thrilled that she had dared to make herself known to her father, and for the moment her only 苦悩 was that something might 妨げる him at the last moment from 統括するing at the 裁判，公判. On the Tuesday morning, therefore, she was 大いに relieved when Larose rang her up 早期に to tell her Lord Merrildon had arrived in Norwich.

With the war news taking up so much space in the newspapers, she knew it would be very 簡潔に 報告（する）／憶測d and that she would have to depend upon Larose. The 裁判，公判 was やめる a short one, 継続している only three days, and upon each of the two first evenings he rang her up and gave her a good 再開する of the 手続き. Still it was only when the 裁判，公判 was over and he （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する to Tunbridge 井戸／弁護士席s to see her that she was able to しっかり掴む to the 十分な everything which had happened.

When Lord Merrildon took his seat upon the （法廷の）裁判 it was 発言／述べるd by many in the 法廷，裁判所 that he was paler than usual. Still, he looked, as he always did, a 静める, unruffled embodiment of the majesty of the 法律.

Angus-Forbes, who was to open for the 栄冠を与える, at first sight appeared anything but the 広大な／多数の／重要な pleader he really was. His 長，率いる was 弾丸-形態／調整d, his 注目する，もくろむs were small and pig-like and his nose 無視する，冷たく断わる and insignificant. His 井戸／弁護士席-developed chin, however, spoke of a 強烈な and 決定するd character, and his mouth was that of an orator. His 発言する／表明する could にわか景気 like a 厳しい-sounding bell and he could work himself up to a passion of denunciation which, upon occasions, was most 効果的な with a 陪審／陪審員団.

Bernard Harcourt, also a King's Counsel, was cast in a very different mould and he looked the aristocrat that he was. Tall and distinguished, with something of the 外見 of a university professor about him, he spoke always in 井戸／弁護士席-modulated トンs, rarely rousing himself to 悪口雑言 or 怒り／怒る. Rather, it was said, he would wheedle himself into the 信用／信任 of a 陪審／陪審員団, almost making them believe he was one of them and just the 広報担当者 for the 相互の opinions they all held. If needed, however, he could 抑えるのをやめる a wealth of sarcasm that would make everyone in the 法廷，裁判所 smile.

Eric Chalmers, stepping slowly up into the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる, made やめる a good impression upon the 法廷，裁判所 一般に. Though 大いに 利益d by his six weeks' 軍隊d 棄権 from alcohol, he looked frail and in a poor 明言する／公表する of health. However, he carried himself with something of a jaunty 空気／公表する, and there was certainly no 調印する of cringing 恐れる about him. He smiled as he sat 負かす／撃墜する.

開始 very 静かに, as was his wont, Angus-Forbes told the 陪審／陪審員団 the 囚人 in the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる was 存在 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d with the wilful and 審議する／熟考する 殺人 of Chandra Simeon, a doctor of 薬／医学, and, though the 証拠 against him was おもに of a circumstantial nature, it was 非，不，無 the いっそう少なく 納得させるing. Indeed, in this particular 事例／患者, it would only be に引き続いて the usual course of nearly all homicidal 裁判，公判s, for, unless a 殺人 was committed upon the 刺激（する） of the moment and in the heat of passion in 前線 of 証言，証人／目撃するs, as a general 支配する it could only be brought home to the 悪党／犯人 by 証拠 which was circumstantial. Circumstantial, he would remind the gentlemen of the 陪審／陪審員団, was the bringing together of small happenings to （不足などを）補う one solid and coherent whole.

Now it must be taken in straight away, he went on, that the （刑事）被告 was no ありふれた and uneducated man such as his 最近の lowly 占領／職業 might 示唆する. He had not always been of the いわゆる working-man class, for he was a 卒業生（する） of Oxford University and his training had been such that it would enable him to 推論する／理由 and calculate 井戸／弁護士席. So, if he were ーするつもりであるing to carry out any 請け負うing he would not 急落（する），激減（する） into it headlong and without thought, but would consider everything, step by step, in a most careful manner.

"I would impress all this upon you," he cried, raising his 発言する／表明する, "because this 罪，犯罪 was carried out with a かなりの degree of cunning, with the （刑事）被告 確信して he had left no 追跡するs behind which could be followed up. Now to find the undoubted 動機 for it we must go 支援する to nearly four years ago. The （刑事）被告 was making his living as an artist then and, becoming 熟知させるd with the 死んだ, upon a few occasions went to his flat in Earl's 法廷，裁判所 for cards. One night, there was a violent quarrel between them. It does not 関心 us what the quarrel was about, but the （刑事）被告 attacked Dr. Simeon in his 猛烈な／残忍な 爆発 of temper and we are told would have done serious 傷害 to him had not the latter's friends 干渉するd and held him 負かす／撃墜する. Then it appears the doctor took an 不公平な advantage of the （刑事）被告 and, kicking him with 広大な／多数の／重要な 暴力／激しさ, broke several of his ribs. At any 率 no 疑問 the （刑事）被告 was 不正に 負傷させるd, as he was in hospital for longer than a month."

The K.C. paused here to look の中で his papers. Finding what he 手配中の，お尋ね者, he went on, "Now we come to a most damning piece of 証拠—a letter which the （刑事）被告 wrote during his convalescence and to which he recklessly 調印するd his 指名する in 十分な. It is short, but very much to the point. I will read it to you.

"You 臆病な／卑劣な devil! Don't think I have forgotten you, for I have not, and never shall. I'll 支払う／賃金 you out one day if I have to wait twenty years to get my chance. I'll kill you as I would a mad dog, you brute! Eric Chalmers."

Angus-Forbes paused again here. "Now, gentlemen of the 陪審／陪審員団, because nearly four years elapsed before the （刑事）被告 carried out his 脅し and then only 得るd his 適切な時期 by sheer chance, it must not be imagined that he had in any way abandoned his 意向 of 得るing his 復讐. We can understand the 推論する／理由 for the 延期する when we realise that in these years the （刑事）被告 had fallen into evil habits and became an habitual drunkard. Intemperance would not have sapped his 決意／決議, but it would have made him slothful in 試みる／企てるing to carry it out.

"井戸／弁護士席, this sheer chance of which I am speaking all at once played into his 手渡すs when the （刑事）被告 was working as a gardener at Blackston Manor. Dr. Simeon （機の）カム to stay as a guest there for a week-end. I shall 証明する to you that he learnt of the doctor's presence and was unduly 利益／興味d at once. I shall 証明する also that he became aware that the 死んだ would be 設立する that evening, most probably alone, by the pond in that lonely 支持を得ようと努めるd where he was subsequently 設立する 溺死するd."

He spoke slowly and 劇的な. "What 正確に／まさに happened there upon that 静かな and 平和的な Sunday evening we shall probably never know, unless in 予定 time the （刑事）被告 makes a 十分な 自白, but with no 広大な／多数の／重要な 強調する／ストレス of imagination we can 決定する something of what took place." He raised one long forefinger 意味ありげに. "The （刑事）被告 was probably in waiting, secreted behind a tree. He sprang out upon his unsuspecting 犠牲者, and 新たな展開ing 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the バーレル／樽 of the ライフル銃／探して盗む the latter was carrying, thrust it into his chest and pulled the 誘発する／引き起こす. Then, without a moment's 延期する, he dragged the 団体／死体 into the pond, threw the ライフル銃／探して盗む in beside him and made off home as quickly as possible, no 疑問 十分な of gloating over what he had done and supremely 確信して that he would never be 設立する out."

A breathless silence filled the 法廷，裁判所, with all 注目する，もくろむs now turned upon the 囚人 in the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる. It might perhaps have been thought he would be looking shamed and 脅すd. But no—he appeared やめる 静める and 確信して and was even smiling.

The 注目する，もくろむs of the 広大な／多数の／重要な King's Counsel 炎d and he made a contemptuous gesture に向かって him before he went on menacingly. "Now how can we be so 確かな the （刑事）被告 was in the 支持を得ようと努めるd that afternoon, and carrying out his vengeful and evil 目的?" he asked in vibrant トンs. "I'll tell you why." He dropped his 発言する／表明する 突然の and answered his own query, slowly and impressively. "Because in his cottage, secreted in the mattress of his bed, was 設立する the wrist-watch which it was known the dead man had been wearing that afternoon."

A plainly audible gasp went 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the 法廷，裁判所 and again all 注目する，もくろむs were turned に向かって the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる. The （刑事）被告, however, appeared still unperturbed. Angus-Forbes continued. "Then what follows?—and I will ask you as men of ありふれた sense to consider whether the 活動／戦闘s of the （刑事）被告 were those of an innocent man!"

He raised his long forefinger again to 強調 what he was going to say. "Now we have no knowledge of 正確に／まさに at what hour the （刑事）被告 had left his cottage that afternoon, but we are 確かな he did leave it for he was seen to return by the woman in the cottage next door at the very moment when the church clock was striking five, striking five, mind you, only such a short time after we know the 死んだ would have arrived by that pond to 会合，会う his dreadful death."

Again he waited a long moment, with his 注目する，もくろむs passing from one to the other of the jurymen before he asked very 静かに, "And how did he return? Did he do so as an honest man would have done, as one innocent of all 最近の wrong-doing, or did he come 支援する as a haunted, 有罪の creature who had just committed a dreadful 罪，犯罪, as one who had taken another man's life and was exposed to the danger of 存在 設立する out?"

The K.C. spoke with the 最大の solemnity. "Gentlemen of the 陪審／陪審員団, the （刑事）被告 did not come home in the ordinary way by the 前線 gate of his cottage, but instead he climbed over the 支援する 盗品故買者 of his little garden in a 隠しだてする and furtive manner, with his 注目する，もくろむs roaming 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to see if anyone were watching him." His 発言する／表明する rose in strident and declamatory トンs. "And not only that, but so anxious was he to 設立する an アリバイ, that at the village public house, the same evening, he twice made the 声明 to those 組み立てる／集結するd there that he had been feeling so sleepy all day that after his midday meal he had thrown himself 負かす／撃墜する upon the bed and slept ひどく for longer than four hours."

Angus-Forbes drew in a 深い breath. "So now we have the 十分な picture of everything before us. The （刑事）被告 nursing a deadly spite against this doctor and, as 証拠d by the 脅すing letter he wrote him, only を待つing his 適切な時期 to 得る his 復讐, his 得るing that 適切な時期 at last and taking 十分な advantage of it, as 証拠d here by his 存在 設立する in 所有／入手 of the dead man's watch, and finally his 決定するd 成果／努力s to 設立する an アリバイ so that nothing should be brought home to him."

He struck his 握りこぶし viciously upon the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する before him. "Could we have more 納得させるing 証拠 of the 犯罪 of the wretched man now before us in the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる? From all I have brought up to you is it not 調印（する）d once and for all? Does not everything point to it?"

Finally the K.C. introduced the 事柄 of the 検死, when, by an ironic 一打／打撃 of 運命／宿命, the （刑事）被告 had been the foreman of the 検死官's 陪審／陪審員団 問い合わせing into the death of the man he himself had killed. Then he had tried to get the enquiry の近くにd in indecent haste by resisting an 調整／景気後退. Later, no 疑問 it had been he who had 説得するd his fellow jurymen to bring in a 判決 of 偶発の death—against the advice of the police.

With the 開始 演説（する）／住所 for the 栄冠を与える finished, a 行列 of 証言，証人／目撃するs proceeded to とじ込み／提出する into the 証言，証人／目撃する-box. The first was the doctor's sister who 証言するd to finding the 脅すing letter の中で his 影響s. She had not come across it until some weeks after his death and that accounted for the 延期する in 手渡すing it over to the police.

Next （機の）カム the housekeeper at the flat. She said the （刑事）被告 had only come there a very few times and that was why she had not recognised him at first. It happened she had 現実に been an 注目する，もくろむ-証言，証人／目撃する of the attack upon her master, as it had occurred just when she was bringing some glasses into the room. Chalmers had sprung upon him, and, taking him unawares, when he was sitting 負かす／撃墜する, had 掴むd him violently by the throat. She had heard nothing about the 脅すing letter, but did not think it would have worried her master much, as he was a very self-確信して man, strong and 運動競技の, and in ordinary circumstances would have been 井戸／弁護士席 able to take care of himself.

Bernard Harcourt, for the defence, did not question either of these 証言，証人／目撃するs.

The third 証言，証人／目撃する was the Manor cook, and it was obvious that she gave her 証拠 with some 不本意. She said the （刑事）被告, whom they all knew as Harry 支持を得ようと努めるd, had been the under-gardener for about a year, and the only （民事の）告訴 she had heard about him was that he drank too much. He never （機の）カム to work 現実に drunk, but he often looked as if he had taken too much, and then was surly and morose when spoken to. At other times, however, he was of a 有望な disposition and 井戸／弁護士席 liked by all the servants. He never appeared to be in good health, but always looked rather white and 病んでいる.

She remembered very distinctly a happening upon the morning after Dr. Simeon had arrived at the Manor as a guest. 支持を得ようと努めるd （機の）カム into the kitchen with some vegetables and 発言／述べるd he had got a bad 頭痛, and she had said jokingly he had better see the doctor they had staying with them now and get a prescription out of him. However, he had shown no 利益／興味 until she had gone on to say the doctor was a 割れ目 West End one, called Simeon. Then he had asked 即時に what he was like and she had replied he was dark and good-looking, 追加するing laughingly that he would make two of him and could take him by the neck and shake him like a terrier with a ネズミ. 支持を得ようと努めるd had made no comment and gone off without a word.

Asked if the （刑事）被告 had known the doctor was going to try to shoot those 強硬派s upon the Sunday evening, she had 認める with some hesitation that she thought he must have done so, as, bringing in some grapes upon the Sunday morning, she had told him four more of the prize Orpington chickens were 行方不明の and that her mistress had asked the doctor to see what he could do to get the 強硬派s then at the pond in the 支持を得ようと努めるd, 近づく where it was thought they had their nest.

Bernard Harcourt rose up briskly here to cross-診察する her.

"Now how does it happen, Mrs. Smith," he asked smilingly, "that you remember so 井戸／弁護士席 the trivial and casual conversation you had with the （刑事）被告 that morning about Dr. Simeon?"

The answer was 誘発する and ready. "Because, sir, it was so unusual for 支持を得ようと努めるd to take any 利益／興味 at all in our guests. Indeed, he used always to 避ける them as much as possible, and we noticed he pulled his cap 負かす／撃墜する 井戸／弁護士席 over his 直面する whenever any of them happened to come 近づく where he was working in the garden. So it made an impression upon me at once when he asked what the doctor was like." She went on volubly, "You see, sir, 支持を得ようと努めるd was always a mystery to us, and we were always 利益／興味d in him. We all knew he had been a gentleman once and we often thought he was afraid of 存在 recognised by some of the many 訪問者s we had."

"Then you went on to say, Mrs. Smith," said Bernard Harcourt, "that from a conversation you had with the （刑事）被告 the next morning, the Sunday morning, that you thought the （刑事）被告 knew Dr. Simeon had been asked by your mistress to try to shoot those 強硬派s. Now what do you mean by 説 you only thought?"

The cook hesitated. "Because he didn't make any 発言／述べる about it, but just went off without a word. Of course, it might have been possible he didn't take in what I said, as he was never too 有望な on Sunday mornings after his 激しい drinking every Saturday as long as the inn kept open."

The next 証言，証人／目撃する was the woman from the cottage 隣接するing Chalmers's and she （機の）カム in for some rough 扱うing from Bernard Harcourt in the cross-examination he gave her.

He drew out she was not friendly with Chalmers and had not spoken to him for several weeks, as she believed he had destroyed her cat because it had been scratching up the seeds in his garden. At any 率 it had disappeared and Chalmers had only laughed when she 税金d him with having got rid of it.

Asked what she meant when she had told the police he had got over his 支援する 盗品故買者 in a furtive way, all she could explain was that he had 星／主役にするd hard at all windows of her cottage as he was getting over, and she thought he looked rather 脅すd about something.

She 認める, however, she had not at the time thought the 事柄 of 十分な 利益／興味 to について言及する it to anyone. She had said nothing about it until questioned by the police.

The last 証言，証人／目撃する was a man who had been in the village inn upon that Sunday evening and he 証言するd the （刑事）被告, who had been yawning a lot, excused himself with the explanation that he had been feeling terribly sleepy all day, so much so that after his midday meal he had lain 負かす／撃墜する for a short nap, as he thought, but had slept all through the afternoon. There was no cross-examination of this 証言，証人／目撃する, and that の近くにd the 事例／患者 for the 栄冠を与える.

A rustle of thrilled and excited 利益／興味 stirred 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the 法廷，裁判所 and it was 一般に 譲歩するd Angus-Forbes had made things look very 黒人／ボイコット for the （刑事）被告 and that the defence would have a hard 仕事 to 突き破る off a 判決 of 有罪の.

However, the （刑事）被告 had lost 非，不，無 of his 確信して 空気／公表する and was smiling when Bernard Harcourt opened his 演説（する）／住所.

Speaking very 静かに and in a rather sarcastic トン, Harcourt 発言／述べるd that his learned friend had given them 早期に 警告 that most of the 証拠 he would put 今後 would be of a circumstantial nature, and he might 井戸／弁護士席 have 追加するd it would take on a most shadowy and unsubstantial form. Indeed, guess-work would have been a better word than 証拠, for it was by guess-work only anyone could imagine the （刑事）被告 had been anywhere in the 周辺 of that 支持を得ようと努めるd where 死んだ had come to his death that Sunday afternoon.

He raised his 発言する／表明する in a declamation here—yet, the whole 事例／患者 for the 起訴 depended 絶対 upon that. No 事柄 how many 脅すing letters the （刑事）被告 might have written in those years ago and no 事柄 what evil thoughts he might have been entertaining for the dead man—unless it could be 絶対 証明するd, or 暗示するd by 推論する／理由ing that was water-tight that he had been there—then the 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 against him must 必然的に 崩壊（する） like a 泡 that had been pricked.

He spoke in crisp and 商売／仕事-like トンs. "Now I shall call no 証言，証人／目撃するs, for there can be no one to 証明する anything on the （刑事）被告's に代わって, but I shall put him straightway into the 証言，証人／目撃する-box and he will tell you his tale in his own way, on 誓い. Much that the 起訴 has gone to such 苦痛s to 証明する he will 収容する／認める at once. He did 令状 that 脅すing letter, he did harbour the bitterest feelings に向かって the 死んだ and he did know he had come to the Manor as a 訪問者. However, he will 断言する that he was not aware 死んだ had been going to that pond that afternoon, for if the cook had について言及するd it to him, he had not taken it in. As you have gathered from her demeanour in the 証言，証人／目撃する-box, she is a garrulous and gossiping woman and he never paid much attention to what she said."

He paused here for a moment to look 負かす／撃墜する at his 公式文書，認めるs, and went on, "As for his not wanting to be seen that afternoon when he was returning to his cottage—this is やめる true, too. He had been out poaching upon a 隣人ing 広い地所, and 恐れるing he had been seen, if 税金d with it, was wanting to make out he had not left home after his midday meal. One last thing—his 所有／入手 of the dead man's watch. The explanation is very simple." He looked 負かす／撃墜する with some amusement at Angus-Forbes. "Every morning he bicycled through that 支持を得ようと努めるd upon his way to work, and on the Monday he saw it lying under a bush just off the path and 選ぶd it up." He spoke with the 最大の sternness to the 陪審／陪審員団. "Remember, gentlemen, this man in the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる is not 存在 tried for 窃盗罪"—his 発言する／表明する was very low and solemn—"but for 殺人, wilful 殺人."

Eric Chalmers stepped briskly into the box and took the 誓い with a 安定した 発言する／表明する. He looked やめる 確信して. His counsel took him quickly through all he had 輪郭（を描く）d in his speech and the replies were quick and ready. 手渡すd over to Angus-Forbes for cross-examination, he appeared in no way nervous at the latter's 脅すing トンs, and it was 一般に agreed by all 現在の in the 法廷，裁判所 that the stout K.C. had not 得点する／非難する／２０d a 選び出す／独身 point until he （機の）カム to the 事柄 of Chalmers getting into his garden over the 支援する 盗品故買者, and there undoubtedly he got the latter into something of a tight corner.

"And you tell us," he said with a steely glint in his 注目する，もくろむs, "you were so anxious not to be seen because you say you were returning from a poaching 探検隊／遠征隊. Then to where had you been?"

"To a 支持を得ようと努めるd upon Major Henniker's 所有物／資産／財産, about two miles away," was the reply.

"But what could you have been 推定する／予想するing to get," asked the K.C. with some sarcasm, "poaching in 幅の広い daylight in the middle of the afternoon?"

"A pheasant or a rabbit," replied Chalmers. "I had a big catapult with me and a pocketful of marbles."

"And you had got nothing?" asked Angus-Forbes.

Chalmers shook his 長，率いる. "No. As I have said, there were other people in the 支持を得ようと努めるd and I almost ran into them. I was afraid they had seen me and might have recognised who I was. That made me bolt away."

"But even if you had been more than recognised," went on the K.C., "if you had been 現実に caught, with nothing upon you, you know やめる 井戸／弁護士席 no 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 could have been laid against you."

"That wasn't 脅すing me," said Chalmers, "but Major Henniker is a friend of my 雇用者, Mr. Rayneham, and, if the people who saw me thought they had recognised me, they would certainly have complained to him and I might have lost my 職業."

Angus-Forbes looked mockingly 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the 法廷，裁判所. "And do you really want to make us believe," he asked, "that you were 推定する／予想するing a sort of enquiry might be held by your 雇用者, with 証言，証人／目撃するs, for and against, you 存在 called—in fact a 正規の／正選手 裁判，公判 such as we are 持つ／拘留するing here now?"

Chalmers looked sullen. "Yes, I did," he replied. "At any 率, something of the sort."

"And you considered the 事柄 so important," went on Angus-Forbes with 激しい sarcasm, "this 事柄 of deciding whether you had been upon this Major Henniker's 所有物／資産／財産 or not, that you had to make (a)手の込んだ／(v)詳述する 準備s for an アリバイ by first creeping into your cottage over the 支援する 盗品故買者 and, later, trumpeting it about in the village public-house that you had been sleeping all the afternoon. Come now—weren't you overdoing it?"

"I don't thing so," snapped Chalmers.

Angus-Forbes's 発言する／表明する was low and 脅すing. "Why—you couldn't have been taking more 警戒s, could you, even if you had just returned from committing a 殺人?"

Chalmers, for the first time looking uneasy and embarrassed, made no answer, and after a long and 重要な pause the King's Counsel shrugged his shoulders contemptuously and went on.

"Now about this watch which you had hidden in your mattress, you say you 設立する it the next morning as you were bicycling to work under a bush a few feet off the path! Then how is it you （機の）カム to see it when the search party of seven gentlemen had not noticed it?"

"I suppose because they were out late in the afternoon," replied Chalmers, "反して I was going by in daylight. Also, I have always looked 井戸／弁護士席 about when going by that pond because I know a pair of stoats have got their 穴を開ける somewhere there."

Angus-Forbes raised his arm with a 雷 gesture. "Ah, that's a bad slip, a very bad one! Stoats are nocturnal animals and never to be seen about in the day!"

Chalmers got very red. "But I've seen them," he said stubbornly, "and I know what I'm talking about."

The King's Counsel 解任するd his comment with a contemptuous gesture and went on, "Now, when, as you say, you 選ぶd up that watch, the path 存在 a 私的な one, you must have realised at once that it belonged to someone staying at the Manor?"

"I suppose so," 認める Chalmers after a moment's hesitation, and then he 追加するd quickly, "Yes, of course I did."

Angus-Forbes went on another 跡をつける. "Now when was it," he asked, "you want to make out you first heard that Dr. Simeon had mysteriously disappeared?"

"Ted Blake, the other gardener, told me," replied Chalmers, "直接／まっすぐに I arrived for work that morning."

"And you make out, too, that it was only then that you heard the doctor had been asked to try to shoot those 強硬派s who were 一般に to be seen in the 周辺 of the pond in the 早期に evening?"

"That is so," agreed Chalmers.

"Then it must have struck you at once," asked Angus-Forbes, "that finding the watch where you say you did it must have belonged to him?"

"It did," 認める Chalmers.

"And of course it at once entered into your mind," went on the King's Counsel, "that if any 事故 had happened to him it would have occurred in the 周辺 of the pond の近くに to where you had 設立する the watch?"

"No, it didn't," replied Chalmers はっきりと. "I just thought he might have been swinging his arm as he walked along and the watch had fallen off. The catch on the chain was not bent in any way. It was just weak and appeared to have sprung open of its own （許可，名誉などを）与える." He shrugged his shoulders. "As for an 事故 having happened to him, I didn't think one had. I remembered him as an eccentric and impulsive man who could never be relied upon in 私的な life, and thought it やめる possible the whim to go off had suddenly come into his mind and he had followed it with no consideration for anybody else. He was always a selfish man."

（犯罪の）一味ing up Dora that evening, Larose spoke much more hopefully than he really felt. "I think everything is going 公正に／かなり 井戸／弁護士席 and it will soon be over now," he said. "Counsel have finished their 演説（する）／住所 and to-morrow his lordship will sum up." He spoke with some enthusiasm. "Oh, Lady Stroud, I do wish you could see Lord Merrildon on the （法廷の）裁判. He looks so majestic and distinguished, and it is undoubtedly his personality which 支配するs the whole 法廷，裁判所. He makes even the 広大な／多数の／重要な King's Counsel look second-率, and, though he 介入するs very little, when he does speak everyone seems to hang upon his words. Yes, I think Chalmers will get off. I'll （犯罪の）一味 up the moment the 判決 has been given."

With Mrs. Rayneham, however, whom he also rang up, he was not やめる so 確信して. "Things are really not going too 不正に," he said, "but Angus-Forbes was in 広大な／多数の／重要な form, and in that impelling and almost hypnotic way of his, as I was afraid he would do, he fastened his teeth like a bulldog into Chalmers's 試みる／企てる to 設立する an アリバイ, and I could see he was making no little impression upon the 陪審／陪審員団. But there is still his lordship's summing-up and I think in that we have a very good chance. For one thing, I'm 確かな he'll damp 負かす／撃墜する Angus-Forbes's 花火s やめる a lot and, as far as he can, 許す only the 明らかにする facts to 影響（力） the 陪審／陪審員団."

The に引き続いて morning when Lord Merrildon took his seat upon the （法廷の）裁判 it was thought by many in the 法廷，裁判所 that he looked rather pale and as if he had not slept 井戸／弁護士席 the previous night. However, his beautifully modulated 発言する／表明する was strong and vibrant, and, even though he spoke very 静かに, every word he uttered could be distinctly heard everywhere in the 法廷，裁判所. All 注目する，もくろむs were fastened intently upon him.

警告 the 陪審／陪審員団 as Angus-Forbes had done that the whole 事例／患者 against the （刑事）被告 was built up on 証拠 that was circumstantial, he considered quickly and 簡潔に all the points that had been put 今後 by the 栄冠を与える.

He agreed that the 動機 for a homicidal attack upon the part of the （刑事）被告 was there, and that it had lain 活動停止中の for nearly four years must not altogether 支配する out the 可能性 of the attack having at last been carried out. As Counsel had pointed out, the intemperate life the （刑事）被告 had been 主要な would have gone far to 次第に損なう all his energy to make an 適切な時期 for himself to 得る his 復讐, but chance having at last, as he thought, thrown that 適切な時期 in his way, he might かもしれない have risen to the occasion and 掴むd it.

Still, it must not be taken for 認めるd he had done so. He had 否定するd he knew this 適切な時期 was there, and his 否定 must not be idly cast away until all その後の happenings went to 証明する that he was not speaking the truth.

His lordship paused here for a few moments to look at his 公式文書，認めるs and then went on slowly and impressively. "Now the first thing that 示唆するs itself to me here is that if the （刑事）被告 did realise that he had now the chance of 得るing his 復讐, if he did know his enemy was going to be alone that evening in that lonely 支持を得ようと努めるd, did he make 適する 準備s to を取り引きする him? Put yourselves in his place. Himself of small physique, and admittedly in a poor 明言する／公表する of health and 弱めるd by years of intemperance—how did he ーするつもりである to 炭坑，オーケストラ席 himself against the strong, 運動競技の man he knew the 死んだ to be? Had not the cook of the Manor told him only the previous day that this West End doctor looked 強健な and strong enough to take him by the scruff of the neck and shake him like a terrier would a ネズミ? So, with the 半端物s so ひどく against him, with what 武器 did he 供給する himself? Surely at least he would have had a 激しい stick?" He shrugged his shoulders. "Yet there has been no suggestion put 今後 by the 栄冠を与える that he was in any way 武装した, and there were no 負傷させるs or bruises 設立する upon the 死んだ to 示唆する it, either."

A hushed silence filled the 法廷，裁判所. All 現在の seemed to be hanging upon the 裁判官's every word. He went on.

"Of course, too, everything would depend upon his taking his 犠牲者 by surprise, and there he must have realised his chances would be very poor. Surely the 死んだ, arriving in the 周辺 of that pond, would have been very much upon the 警報? He was a hunter pitting his wits against creatures of the wild and his 注目する，もくろむs would have been here, there and everywhere! Then how did （刑事）被告 manage to get 近づく enough to him to engage in that 手渡す-to-手渡す struggle, as 証拠d by the torn-off button, which is the crux of the whole 事例／患者 for the 栄冠を与える? Then, if this struggle did take place, how is it 死んだ showed no 示すs or bruises upon him, and, again, how was it he was worsted so easily by his much 女性 対抗者?"

Larose was thrilled and would have dearly loved to clap his 手渡すs. His lordship was 現実に putting up a stronger 事例／患者 for Chalmers than had the counsel for the defence. Angus-Forbes was frowning hard.

The 裁判官 continued, "And now I come to another 事柄, that of the アリバイ the （刑事）被告 had been at such 苦痛s to 準備する to make out he had not left his cottage that afternoon, and it may have seemed to many of you, as it did to me at first, that the （刑事）被告 did not come out of it too 井戸／弁護士席."

A rustle of excitement went 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the 法廷，裁判所 and Angus-Forbes dropped his troubled, frowning look.

The 裁判官 went on. "Then I asked myself—why, if he were so wanting to 保護（する）／緊急輸入制限 himself from the 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of having killed the 死んだ, should he have thought it necessary to 準備する any アリバイ at all? As no 証言，証人／目撃する has been brought 今後, 明らかに he knew no one had seen him come out of the 支持を得ようと努めるd. So, if and when the 団体／死体 of 死んだ were 設立する in the pond, why should he have been 恐れるing anyone would in any way associate it with him? Even if he had given a thought to that 脅すing letter he had written four years 支援する 存在 still in 存在, he would have been 確信して it meant no danger to him, as the 身元 of Eric Chalmers, the artist, had been lost in that of Henry 支持を得ようと努めるd, the gardener. So, who would be aware he had ever known the dead Dr. Simeon, ever met him, ever even heard of him?"

The 裁判官 raised his 手渡す warningly. "Remember he did not know then that his real 身元 was to be 暴露するd later by the 死んだ's housekeeper recognising him at the 検死. So with all this in his mind, why should he not have walked boldly up to the 前線 入り口 of his cottage, indifferent to everyone who might see him enter?"

In 結論, his lordship 警告するd the 陪審／陪審員団 with the 最大の gravity that unless they had no 疑問 at all as to the 犯罪 of the （刑事）被告 they must acquit him of the 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 now brought against him. For a man arraigned upon the 資本／首都 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金, with the dreadful consequences which would 続いて起こる if he were 設立する 有罪の, it must not be 単に that 確かな of his 活動／戦闘s were inclining them to the belief that he had committed the 罪，犯罪. Far more than that was needed, for the chain of 証拠 must be whole and 完全にする in every way. Were even one small link 行方不明の, then it must be taken as if there were no chain at all, and then their 判決 must be that the 事例／患者 against the （刑事）被告 had not been 支えるd.

The summing-up over, the 裁判官 left the （法廷の）裁判, the 陪審／陪審員団 とじ込み／提出するd out and a buzz of subdued excitement filled the 法廷，裁判所. There was no 疑問 in the minds of most of those 現在の that his lordship had summed up dead in favour of an 無罪放免; indeed, it was agreed he had torpedoed the whole 事例／患者 of the 栄冠を与える.

Angus-Forbes was frowning 怒って, and there could be no 疑問 the summing-up had not been to his liking. He conversed whisperingly with his junior and was seen to shrug his shoulders, as if in 広大な／多数の／重要な annoyance. His junior was looking displeased, too, and it was evident he was of the same opinion as his leader.

いっそう少なく than a half-hour passed, and the 勧める called for silence, the 裁判官 再開するd his seat upon the （法廷の）裁判 and the 陪審／陪審員団 とじ込み／提出するd 支援する into 法廷，裁判所. At once, from the 表現 of their 直面するs, it was evident what the 判決 was going to be, and a 広大な／多数の／重要な sigh of 救済 rolled 一連の会議、交渉／完成する when "Not 有罪の" was 発表するd and Eric Chalmers stepped 負かす／撃墜する from the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる.

It was a very happy moment for Larose when he rang up Dora and told her all that had happened. 涙／ほころびs streamed 負かす／撃墜する her 直面する, and it was some moments before she could speak.

"But we 借りがある it all to Lord Merrildon," said Larose, "for never have I heard a summing-up more 堅固に in favour of an （刑事）被告. I can tell you now that at one time things were looking very 黒人／ボイコット for Chalmers, and but for his lordship he would almost certainly have been 罪人／有罪を宣告するd. But the summing-up altered everything. It seemed 正確に／まさに as if his lordship knew everything that had happened in that 支持を得ようと努めるd and he was 決定するd not to 許す the 陪審／陪審員団 to have the very slightest 推論する／理由 for bringing in a 判決 of 有罪の."

"And did he seem pleased when the 判決 had been given?" asked Dora in trembling トンs.

"By Jove, he did," replied Larose, "and, for some 推論する／理由 which appeared to me rather unusual, most relieved, too. It was evident the 裁判，公判 had been rather a 緊張する for him and I even thought there was a trace of nervousness in his 発言する／表明する when he thanked the 陪審／陪審員団 for their services. Oh, but his summing-up was grand!"

"And Eric Chalmers," asked Dora, "what about him?"

"Oh, he," laughed Larose, "seemed more unconcerned than anyone in the 法廷，裁判所. He kept up his devil-may-care 表現 権利 up to the very last and was even grinning when he stepped 負かす／撃墜する from the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる. Of course he was re-逮捕（する）d again at once for that 押し込み強盗, and I 推定する／予想する he'll be punished for it."

Lord and Lady Merrildon became 広大な／多数の／重要な friends with the Strouds and, as can be 井戸／弁護士席 understood, Dora arranged that her father should see a lot of his grandchildren, with たびたび（訪れる） visits 存在 交流d between the two houses.

In the に引き続いて year, however, Lady Merrildon died of 肺炎 and Lord Merrildon, 配置する／処分する／したい気持ちにさせるing of his 広い地所 in Saffron Walden, took a small flat in Town. At 週末s and whenever his judicial 義務s would 許す he was 招待するd 負かす／撃墜する to Marden 法廷，裁判所, but was always under the 抑制 of having continually to be guarding against letting his affection for Dora and his grandchildren become noticeable, not only to 部外者s, but to Dora's husband 同様に.

For all that, people did notice it, and one morning Sir Richard received an 匿名の／不明の letter from some spiteful person 警告 him that the 裁判官 was 井戸／弁護士席 on the way to becoming his wife's lover. Not for one moment giving credence to the idea, the letter, however, annoyed Sir Richard not a little, and a happening that same week in a way 追加するd to his discomfiture.

His 義務s having 突然に taken him north to 統括する at some assizes when it had been arranged he should spend the week-end with the Strouds, his lordship wrote a warm letter of 陳謝 to Dora, at the same time 追加するing that he was sending her a box of orchids with his kindest regards.

The に引き続いて morning the orchids duly arrived, with 明らかに no message in the box, but a little later, going into the room where they had been unpacked, Sir Richard 選ぶd a small slip of paper off the 床に打ち倒す and he frowned ひどく when he read what was written on it.

He said nothing during the day, but that evening after dinner, when he and Dora were alone in the library, he 発言／述べるd suddenly, "Dora, I want to speak to you about something rather important."

Dora looked up at once from the 調書をとる／予約する she was reading and asked curiously, "What is it, darling? Are you worrying about anything?"

"Not 正確に／まさに worrying," he replied slowly, "but I'm wondering if we're not getting a little too friendly with Lord Merrildon."

"Too friendly!" exclaimed Dora はっきりと. "What on earth do you mean? You like him, don't you?"

"Yes, very much," said Richard. "In fact I regard him as one of the finest men I have ever known." He hesitated. "But it's really that I'm thinking about you."

Dora felt her 直面する 紅潮／摘発するing and turned her 注目する，もくろむs 負かす／撃墜する again upon her 調書をとる／予約する. "Thinking about me?" she asked carelessly. "Why in particular about me?"

"About you in this way," he replied slowly and as if with some 成果／努力. "I want to know, has Lord Merrildon——" but he suddenly raised his 発言する／表明する and spoke はっきりと. "Don't move! Don't look up! Keep still, 正確に／まさに as you are."

A few moments' 激しい silence followed, with Dora's heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing uncomfortably.

"That'll do," said Richard. "You can look up now." He passed his を引き渡す his forehead. "Now what was I going to ask you? Ah! I know." His 発言する／表明する was not 告発する／非難するing, only curious, as he went on. "Dora," he asked, "has Lord Merrildon ever kissed you?"

Dora's 直面する was now as red as 解雇する／砲火／射撃, and she had to 安定した her 発言する／表明する to speak. "Yes, he has," she replied as casually as she could; "often upon my forehead, but never upon my lips." She drew in a 深い breath and went on in a 激流 of words, "Oh, Richard, I've so hated having a 広大な／多数の／重要な secret from you and I'm so glad you asked me now about Lord Merrildon, as it 強要するs me to tell you something which I thought I should never dare to." She sprang up from her 議長，司会を務める and, moving up の近くに to him, knelt 負かす／撃墜する and buried her 直面する against him. "Darling," she went on in a choking 発言する／表明する, "Lord Merrildon is my father."

To her amazement her husband laughed, but laughed very softly. "Of course, it is やめる impossible, sweetheart," he said, "but when I told you to keep perfectly still just now it was because I had suddenly seen a 広大な／多数の／重要な likeness between him and you. As you were casting your 注目する，もくろむs 負かす／撃墜する, your 表現 was 正確に／まさに the same as his when he is looking very thoughtful. I can tell you it startled me."

"Then you are not ashamed or 傷つける," asked Dora pleadingly, "to learn of my mother's fault?"

"Ashamed or 傷つける!" exclaimed Richard with a laugh. "Why, I should be delighted if it were true. I should be thinking how clever our children might turn out with a grandfather of the eminence of his lordship."

"It is true, Richard," said Dora 真面目に. "I'll tell you everything," and into her husband's astonished ears she 注ぐd the whole story of the 悲劇 of her mother's life, and how, after these many years, she had at last come to learn the secret of her birth.

During its recital, Richard never said a word, and 徐々に, only very 徐々に, the 懐疑的な and doubtful 表現 faded from his 直面する. In the end it was evident he realised what she had told him was all true, and it seemed he was やめる happy about it.

"But we must not tell him you know," said Dora finally. "He must never learn that I have told you."

"Nonsense," laughed Richard. "Of course we'll tell him, and the poor old chap will have the happiness of 存在 able to show his love for you and the children—率直に. You shall call him Dad and the children Grandpapa. He shall make this his home, too."

"But what will people think and say?" asked Dora, rather aghast.

"Let them think and say what they like," 宣言するd Richard. "It won't 傷つける us. Besides, we'll give out your father died before you were born and you can say you've 可決する・採択するd him."

Dora threw her 武器 一連の会議、交渉／完成する her husband's neck and kissed him 情愛深く. "You are a good man, Richard, darling," she said, "but then I always knew that. I never minded your seeing how friendly I was with my father, because I always knew you'd never think anything wrong about me."

At that moment one of the children's nurses knocked at the door and told Dora the youngest was crying for her and would not be pacified. "All 権利, I'll come," said Dora, and she followed the nurse out of the room.

Alone by himself, Richard smiled a slow, inscrutable Mona Lisa smile and, taking a small piece of paper out of his pocket, crumpled it up and threw it in the 解雇する／砲火／射撃. Upon the paper had been written in the 裁判官's handwriting;

"To my darling Dora, with all the love in the world."

THE END

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