The maid Ellen who had admitted us, red-eyed and scared, flew down the corridor into the kitchen, whence immediately afterwards emerged a professional nurse, who, carrying something, flitted into Doria's room. From the spare room came for a moment an elderly woman whom we did not know. The study door was flung wide open--I noticed that the jamb was splintered. From the drawing-room came sounds of awful moaning. We entered and found Adrian's mother alone, helpless with grief. Barbara sat by her and took her in her arms and spoke to her. But she could tell us nothing. I heard a man's step in the hall and Jaffery and I went out. He was a young man, very much agitated; he looked relieved at seeing us. "I am a doctor," said he, "I was called in. The usual medical man is apparently away for Christmas. I'm so glad you've come. Is there a Mrs. Freeth here?" "Yes. My wife," said I. "Thank goodness--" He drew a breath. "There's no one here capable of doing anything. I had to get in the nurse and the other woman." Jaffery had summoned Barbara from her vain task. "Mrs. Boldero is very ill--as ill as she can be. Of course you were aware of her condition--well--the shock has had its not very uncommon effect." "Life in danger?" Jaffery asked bluntly. "Life, reason, everything. Tell me. I'm a stranger. I know nothing--I was summoned and found a man lying dead on the floor in that room"--he pointed to the study--"and a woman in a dreadful state. I've only had time to make sure that the poor fellow was dead. Could you tell me something about them?" So we told him, the three of us together, as people will, who Adrian Boldero was, and how he and his genius were all this world and a bit of the next to his wife. How I managed to talk sensibly I don't know, for beating against the walls of my head was the thought that Adrian lay there in the room where I had seen the strange woman, lifeless and stiff, with the laughing eyes forever closed and the last mockery gone from his lips. Just then the woman appeared again. The young doctor beckoned to her and said a few words. Jaffery and I followed her into the death-chamber, leaving the doctor with Barbara. And then we stood and looked at all that was left of Adrian. But how did it happen? It was not till long afterwards that I really knew more than the scared maid-servant and the porter of the mansions then told us. But that little more I will set down here.