blustering again, and wouldn't do anything. As a matter of fact, I don't
think she cared very much what he did. She had got so fed up with him
that she didn't care whether they separated or not."

Mr. Flexen felt more sure than ever that this garrulity was unusual in
Colonel Grey. He was talking with a purpose, apparently to induce him to
believe that both he and Lady Loudwater had taken her husband's threat of
divorce proceedings lightly. He began to think that they had not taken it
lightly at all, or, at any rate, one or other of them had not.

"Yes," he said. "That's what always happens with those blustering'
fellows. In the end no one takes them seriously. But what I came to ask
you was: Did you, as you came through the library or went out through it,
hear Lord Loudwater snore?"

Colonel Grey hesitated, just as Lady Loudwater had hesitated over that
question. Plainly he was weighing the effect of his answer.

Then he said: "No."

Mr. Flexen's instinct assured him that Colonel Grey had lied just as Lady
Loudwater had lied.

"Are you sure that nothing in the nature of a snore came to your ears as
you came out? Did you hear any sound from the room? You can see how
important it is to fix as near as we possibly can the hour of Lord
Loudwater's death," he said earnestly.

"No, I heard nothing," said Colonel Grey firmly.