"You see," began Roberts, looking at Mrs. Faulkner and Barry Stannard, "you two are the only ones I can talk to frankly. Those two ladies suspected by the police have to be handled carefully. You are both material witnesses, and as such are bound to tell me truthfully all you can of anything bearing on the case. Now, however painful it may be for you, Mr. Stannard, I must tell you that it is rapidly coming to a show-down between the two suspects, and the probability is, it seems to me, that the burden of evidence rests more strongly on the wife than on the model. The direct evidence is perhaps evenly balanced, but it seems to the police that the motive is greater and the opportunity easier for Mrs. Stannard than for Miss Vernon. The wife, let us say, had reason for jealousy, and had reason for wishing to be free of her uncongenial husband. The little model, while irritated at her employer's attentions, was in love with another man, and could easily get away from the artist without resorting to crime." "That's right about Natalie," exclaimed Barry, "but it's unthinkable that Joyce should go so far as to kill----" "You don't know all the provocation she may have had," said Roberts. "A jealous wife, or an unloving wife goes through many hard hours before she reaches the point of desperation, but she sometimes gets there, and then the climax comes. At any rate, if Miss Vernon isn't guilty, Mrs. Stannard is. You can't find two women hovering over a dying man, and acquit them both. So it's one or the other, and I incline toward the suspicion of the older woman." "But how do you explain the various clues pointing to Natalie?" asked Beatrice Faulkner. "Let's take them one by one. First, that note found on the man's desk. Even if that were written to Miss Vernon, it needn't condemn her. Even if she had been in love with the artist, it is no evidence whatever that she killed him. And the whole tone of the note is against its being meant for her. It is unexplained so far, but I can't look on it as evidence against the model." "I agree with that," said Mrs. Faulkner. "That letter may well have been to some other woman interested in Eric Stannard, and she may have had the emeralds, and, through connivance with a servant, returned them to Joyce last night." "No, no, Mrs. Faulkner, that isn't right. I don't understand the emerald business altogether, but I thoroughly believe that Mrs. Stannard has had them in her keeping all the time. Now, next, we have the evidence of the dying man's exclamation. That, I think, is perfectly explained by Miss Vernon's assertion that he meant he loved her and not his wife."