"Did Dr. Wellesley admit you himself?" "Yes, he did, and he took me straight up to his drawing-room by a side staircase." "No one saw you going in?" "No; nor leaving, either!" "Why all this privacy, Mrs. Mallett?" "My business was of a private sort, sir!" "Will you tell us what it was?" "I will tell you that I had reasons of my own--my particular own--for seeing Dr. Wellesley and the Mayor." "The Mayor! Did you see the Mayor--there?" "No. I meant to see him, but I didn't." "Do you mean that you expected to meet him there--in Dr. Wellesley's drawing-room?" "No. Dr. Wellesley had told me of the door between his house and the Moot Hall, and he said that after he and I had had our talk I could go through that door to the Mayor's Parlour, where I should be sure to find Mr. Wallingford at that time." "I see. Then, did you go to see Mr. Wallingford?" "I did." "After talking with Dr. Wellesley?" "Yes. He showed me the way--opened the door for me----" "Stay, what time would that be?" "About 7.35 or so. I went along the passage to the Mayor's Parlour, but I never entered." "Never entered? Why, now, Mrs. Mallett?" "Because, as I reached the door, I heard people talking inside the Parlour. So I went back." CHAPTER XIV WHOSE VOICES? Meeking, who by long experience knew the value of dramatic effect in the examination of witnesses, took full advantage of Mrs. Mallett's strange and unexpected announcement. He paused, staring at her--he knew well enough that when he stared other folk would stare too. So for a full moment the situation rested--there stood Mrs. Mallett, resolute and unmoved, in the box, with every eye in the crowded court fixed full upon her, and Meeking still gazing at her intently--and, of set purpose, half-incredulously. There was something intentionally sceptical, cynical, in his tone when, at last, he spoke: "Do you say--on oath--that you went, through the door between Dr. Wellesley's house and the Moot Hall, to the Mayor's Parlour--that evening?" "To the door of the Mayor's Parlour," corrected Mrs. Mallett. "Yes. I do. I did!" "Was the door closed?" "The door was closed." "But you say you heard voices?" "I heard voices--within." "Whose voices?" "That I can't say. I couldn't distinguish them." "Well, did you hear the Mayor's voice?" "I tell you I couldn't distinguish any voice. There were two people talking inside the Mayor's Parlour, anyway, in loud voices. It seemed to me that they were both talking at the same time--in fact, I thought----" "What did you think?" demanded Meeking, as Mrs. Mallett paused. "Well, I thought that, whoever they were, the two people were quarrelling--the voices were loud, lifted, angry, I thought." "And yet you couldn't distinguish them?" "No, I couldn't. I might have recognized the Mayor's voice perhaps, if I'd gone closer to the door and listened, but I didn't stay. As soon as I heard--what I have told you of--I went straight back."