which a gentleman of good position was found dead under
circumstances not devoid of suspicion.' A tragic ending, wasn't
it? But after all, if what he told me were true, which I am
sure it was, the man's life was all a tragedy, and a tragedy of
a stranger sort than they put on the boards."

"And that is the story, is it?" said Clarke musingly.

"Yes, that is the story."

"Well, really, Villiers, I scarcely know what to say
about it. There are, no doubt, circumstances in the case which
seem peculiar, the finding of the dead man in the area of
Herbert's house, for instance, and the extraordinary opinion of
the physician as to the cause of death; but, after all, it is
conceivable that the facts may be explained in a straightforward
manner. As to your own sensations, when you went to see the
house, I would suggest that they were due to a vivid
imagination; you must have been brooding, in a semi-conscious
way, over what you had heard. I don't exactly see what more can
be said or done in the matter; you evidently think there is a
mystery of some kind, but Herbert is dead; where then do you
propose to look?"

"I propose to look for the woman; the woman whom he
married. She is the mystery."

The two men sat silent by the fireside; Clarke secretly
congratulating himself on having successfully kept up the
character of advocate of the commonplace, and Villiers wrapped