"You imply that you did not meet her?"

"No need to imply anything, Mr. Ingerman. I did not meet her. Beyond
the fanciful notion that I had seen her ghost last night, the first I
knew of her presence in the village was when I recognized her dead body
this morning."

"Strange as it may sound, I am inclined to believe you."

Grant said nothing. He wanted to get up and pitch Ingerman into the road.

"But who else will take that charitable view?" purred the other, in
that suave voice which so ill accorded with his thin lips and slightly
hooked nose.

"I really don't care," was the weary answer.

"Not at the moment, perhaps. You have had a trying day, no doubt. My
visit at its close cannot be helpful. But--"

"I am feeling rather tired mentally," interrupted Grant, "so you will
oblige me by not raising too many points at once. Why should you imagine
that conversation with you in particular should add to my supposed
distress?"

"Doesn't it?"

"No."

"Why, then, may I ask, do you so obviously resent my questions? Who has