"Yes," she sighed. "Irrevocably, I fear; unless she can discover some means whereby to hold him at defiance." "But she must. I would rather see her dead than the wife of such a man," he cried. She remained silent for some minutes. Her cigarette had gone out and she tossed it away. At last she turned to him, exclaiming,-- "Towards her release I am striving. I want your assistance." "I will render you every help in my power," he answered eagerly. "What can I do?" "First," she said, glancing at him curiously through her half-raised veil, "first describe to me in detail the whole of the circumstances in which poor Nelly Bridson was killed." "What!" he exclaimed quickly. "Has her fear any connection with that tragic incident?" In an instant he remembered the finding of a hairpin near the spot, a pin which had been proved conclusively not to belong to the murdered girl. "I know it was you who discovered the body," she went on, disregarding his inquiry. "Tell me the whole of the sad affair as far as your knowledge extends. I have, of course, read the accounts of the inquest which appeared in the papers at the time, but I am anxious to ascertain some further details." "Of what nature?" "I want you to tell me, if you will," she replied with an interested look, "the exact position of the body when you discovered it." Her question brought to his memory his ghastly discovery in all its hideousness. There arose before his vision the blanched upturned face of the girl prostrate in the dust, the fallen cycle, and the white, deserted English lane, silent and gloomy in the evening mist. "Why do you desire me to recall an event so painful?" he asked in a calm tone. "Because it is necessary that you should tell me exactly how you discovered her," she replied. "You had an appointment with Liane at that very spot on that same evening, had you not?" "Yes," he answered. "I was, unfortunately, late in keeping it, and rode to the railway bridge at full gallop, expecting to find her still waiting, but instead, found Nelly dead." "She was lying in the centre of the road?" "Almost. But a little to the right," he answered. "The road passing beneath the railway takes an abrupt but short incline just where I found her. She was evidently mounting the hill on her cycle when she was shot down." "Tell me exactly how you discovered her, and how you acted immediately afterwards," she urged. "Begin at the beginning, and tell me all. It may be that you can assist me in releasing Liane from her bondage." Her words puzzled him, nevertheless, in obedience to her wish, he related in their proper sequence each of the events of that memorable evening; how he had made the appalling discovery, how he had found the long-lost miniature of Lady Anne, had ridden with all speed down to the village for assistance, and how he had subsequently discovered the mysterious hairpin among the long grass by the gateway.