"But they would have seen--have heard--the people around, I mean."

"So they say; but I have a theory--but no matter about that now.
I'm going down again to see how things have progressed. I'll be
back for you later. Only be ready."

Be ready! I almost laughed,--a hysterical laugh, of course, when I
recalled the injunction. Be ready! This lonely sitting by myself,
with nothing to do but think was a fine preparation for a sudden
appearance before those men--some of them police-officers, no doubt.

But that's enough about myself; I'm not the heroine of this story.
In a half hour or an hour--I never knew which--George reappeared
only to tell me that no conclusions had as yet been reached; an
element of great mystery involved the whole affair, and the most
astute detectives on the force had been sent for. Her father, who
had been her constant companion all winter, had not the least
suggestion to offer in way of its solution. So far as he knew--and
he believed himself to have been in perfect accord with his daughter
--she had injured no one. She had just lived the even, happy and
useful life of a young woman of means, who sees duties beyond those
of her own household and immediate surroundings. If, in the
fulfillment of those duties, she had encountered any obstacle to
content, he did not know it; nor could he mention a friend of hers
--he would even say lovers, since that was what he meant--who to
his knowledge could be accused of harbouring any such passion of
revenge as was manifested in this secret and diabolical attack.
They were all gentlemen and respected her as heartily as they
appeared to admire her. To no living being, man or woman, could he
point as possessing any motive for such a deed. She had been the