"Who did touch her? Anybody, before the father came in?"

"Yes; Miss Clarke, the middle-aged lady with the Parrishes. She
had run towards Miss Challoner as soon as she heard her fall, and
was sitting there with the dead girl's head in her lap when the
musicians showed themselves."

"I suppose she has been carefully questioned?"

"Very, I should say."

"And she speaks of no weapon?"

"No. Neither she nor any one else at that moment suspected murder
or even a violent death. All thought it a natural one--sudden, but
the result of some secret disease."

"Father and all?"

"Yes."

"But the blood? Surely there must have been some show of blood?"

"They say not. No one noticed any. Not till the doctor came--her
doctor who was happily in his office in this very building. He saw
the drops, and uttered the first suggestion of murder."

"How long after was this? Is there any one who has ventured to make
an estimate of the number of minutes which elapsed from the time she