“A man!” The girl’s surprise was unmistakable. Her jealousy had blinded her that time as much as it had sharpened her sight the other. “No, I never thought of noticing anything of that sort. I hadn’t any reason for it. I believed what I was told. And she behaved just like Lady Violet. And he certainly believed it was she. I tried to keep them apart, but it was no use. I saw him make her come into the alcove. She went unwillingly, just as I should have expected. I got near, and watched them through the curtain. He ordered coffee for both....” She seemed to pull herself up. Was she telling a carefully framed story, and hesitating at the last fatal point? Or was she only shrinking from uttering the words that might condemn a fellow creature to death? “And?” the physician breathed gently. Sarah braced herself up with a visible effort. “_I saw her drop something into his cup._” I believed it was a lie. To this hour I believe it. Sarah Neobard and I are never likely to meet again on this earth, and I may do her an injustice. Yet on her showing, if she was to be believed, she had looked on at what must have seemed to her an attempt to murder, and had not lifted a finger to save the life of the man she half hated and half loved. Meanwhile the charge had been made, a charge which the adviser of the Home Office was bound to act upon, as the look he gave me clearly showed. I seized on it as an invitation to speak. “Did you believe that the person, whoever it was, meant to poison him?” I asked, trying to suppress my indignation. “What else could I believe?” She gave the answer almost rudely, so as to show that she resented my presuming to question her. “And you did nothing? You didn’t interfere?” The accuser flushed angrily. She stumbled over her reply. “What could I do? If I had made a scene she would have denied it, and he would have taken her part. Besides, it was all over in a moment. He had drunk his coffee before I had time to do anything.” “Think again,” I said earnestly. “You are not on your oath. Are you certain of what you saw? Remember that you are bringing a charge of murder against a fellow creature, a young woman who has done you no wrong, who, you admit yourself, was your step-father’s innocent victim.” “I didn’t say that. I said she hated him. She can’t be innocent if she poisoned him.” “_If_ she poisoned him,” I repeated with emphasis. “You have heard that she was more than a hundred miles away, according to the police evidence. But the same evidence shows that you were there, and you have told us as much.” “What?” The girl almost leaped from her seat “Are you suggesting that I had anything to do with it?” I glanced at my chief for permission to go on. He was lying back on his chair, his timepiece twisting between his fingers, apparently listening with the detachment of an impartial judge.