"This is a very strange story, Miss Frayne. Have you mentioned these things you overheard to any one before this?" "No. I have thought them over, and concluded it was best to tell the story first to you." "And quite right. It is, then, your opinion that there was another person in Miss Carrington's room, to whom she was speaking?" "It seemed so to me." "But you did not hear this other person's voice?" Anita paused a moment and then said: "Not distinctly." "Did you hear it at all?" "I cannot say. When I did not hear Miss Carrington's voice clearly, there were sounds that might have been another person or her own voice speaking more inaudibly." "Might it not be that she was merely talking to herself,--soliloquizing?" "It could not have been that. She spoke definitely and decidedly _to_ some one when she said 'Your face is beautiful,' and when she said, 'I have willed you ten thousand dollars,' indeed, every thing she said was as if spoken to some hearer; not as one who talks to herself." "After you regained your room, did you leave it again?" "No, I did not." "H'm. Now, are you positive, Miss Frayne, that all these speeches were said just as you have repeated them? It is a great strain on the memory to repeat accurately a conversation as long as the one you have just rehearsed." "The speeches I heard are burned into my brain. I could not forget them if I would. I may have erred in some minor or unimportant words, but the most of what I heard is precisely as I have repeated it. Indeed, so thoroughly was I amazed at it all, I wrote it down as soon as I reached my room. I had then no thought of--of what was going to happen, but Miss Carrington had made peculiar remarks during the evening about something happening to her, and in connection with that the words I heard seemed so remarkable,--not to say uncanny,--that I made a note of them. This is not an unusual habit with me. I often make notes of conversations, as it has been useful in my services as secretary." "As how?" "If a caller in a social or business way had conversation with Miss Carrington, and I was present, I often made a record, in case she asked me later just what had been said." "I see. And how do you interpret the words, 'Henri, you are the mark I aim at?'" "I can only think that Miss Carrington was in favor of considering a marriage between herself and the Count." "You made use of the word 'uncanny.' Do you imagine that Miss Carrington had any foreboding of her approaching doom?" "When I heard her say, 'To-morrow I will be forever freed from this homely face of mine,' and 'to-morrow all these jewels will be yours,' I couldn't help thinking,--after the discovery of her death,--that she must have anticipated it." "Did her voice sound like the despairing one of a person about to die?" "On the contrary, it sounded full of life and animation." "Did she seem angry with the person to whom she was speaking?"