"You are certain?"

"Positive! I can't make out how it came into Maraquito's
house."

Jennings pondered. "Perhaps Basil may have given it to her.
It is to his interest on behalf of his mother to make trouble
between you and Miss Saxon. Moreover, if it is as I surmise,
it shows that Mrs. Octagon intended to stop the marriage, if
she could, even before her sister died."

"Ah! And it shows that the death of Miss Loach gave her a
chance of asserting herself and stopping the marriage."

"Well, she might have hesitated to do that before, as Miss
Loach might not have left her fortune to Juliet if the
marriage did not take place."

Cuthbert nodded and spoke musingly: "After all, the old woman
liked me, and I was the nephew of the man who loved her in her
youth. Her heart may have been set on the match, and she
might have threatened to leave her fortune elsewhere if Mrs.
Octagon did not agree. Failing this, Mrs. Octagon, through
Basil, gave that photograph to Maraquito in the hope that
Juliet would ask questions of me--"

"And if she had asked questions?" asked Jennings quickly.

Cuthbert looked uncomfortable. "Don't think me a conceited
ass," he said, trying to laugh, "but Maraquito is in love with