"We will do better," answered Mr. Gryce, setting the vase down with a precision that made me jump; for I am a worshipper of _bric-à-brac_, and prize the few articles I own, possibly beyond their real value. "We will treat her as a coadjutor, which, by the way, she says she is not, and by the trust we place in her, secure that discretionary use of our confidence which she shows with so much spirit in regard to her own." "Begin then," said I. "I will," said he, "but first allow me to acknowledge that you are the person who first put us on the track of Franklin Van Burnam." XXX. THE MATTER AS STATED BY MR. GRYCE. I had exhausted my wonder, so I accepted this statement with no more display of surprise than a grim smile. "When you failed to identify Howard Van Burnam as the man who accompanied his wife into the adjacent house, I realized that I must look elsewhere for the murderer of Louise Van Burnam. You see I had more confidence in the excellence of your memory than you had yourself, so much indeed that I gave you more than one chance to exercise it, having, by certain little methods I sometimes employ, induced different moods in Mr. Van Burnam at the time of his several visits, so that his bearing might vary, and you have every opportunity to recognize him for the man you had seen on that fatal night." "Then it was he you brought here each time?" I broke in. "It was he." "Well!" I ejaculated. "The Superintendent and some others whom I need not mention,"--here Mr. Gryce took up another small object from the table,--"believed implicitly in his guilt; conjugal murder is so common and the causes which lead to it so frequently puerile. Therefore I had to work alone. But this did not cause me any concern. _Your_ doubts emphasized mine, and when you confided to me that you had seen a figure similar to the one we were trying to identify, enter the adjoining house on the evening of the funeral, I made immediate inquiries and discovered that the gentleman who had entered the house right after the four persons described by you was _Franklin Van Burnam_. This gave me a definite clue, and this is why I say that it was you who gave me my first start in this matter." "Humph!" thought I to myself, as with a sudden shock I remembered that one of the words which had fallen from Miss Oliver's lips during her delirium had been this very name of Franklin.