"I accuse no one," retorted Ronald, coolly. "I merely asked you if his wife would have been sorry at his death." Vassalla threw himself back in his chair, with a short, angry laugh. "Upon my soul, sir," he said, coldly, "I hardly recognise your right to speak to me about such a thing; but as you seem so bent on knowing, I think she would have been--very sorry, indeed." "Oh! Then she still loved him?" Vassalla cast his fine eyes up to the ceiling. "Passionately!" "That is curious," said Ronald, sardonically, "as I have a document in my possession, written five or six years ago, in which she threatens to kill him." "Indeed, and how did you obtain such a document?" "I found it among some papers left by Verschoyle with his sister, Mrs. Taunton." "Ah!" Vassalla thought a moment: so this was the reason Monteith was with Mrs. Taunton; it was business, not love, that brought them together; well, at all events, he would not let Carmela know. After a moment's deliberation, he faced his adversary with a clear brow. "Very likely it was written in her first outburst of jealous anger at being so betrayed by her husband; but I assure you she loved her husband deeply, in spite of the way he wronged her, and often spoke of him with affection." Judging from the story told to him by Verschoyle, and the extracts from Mrs. Dexter's diary, Ronald thought this doubtful, but restrained his desire to give an opinion on that point. "Did Mrs. Verschoyle come on board, the night the 'Neptune' left Malta?" Vassalla glanced keenly at him. "Why should she?" "To see you and Miss Cotoner off." "Suppose she did come on board?" "She might have seen her husband." "Impossible! She did not know he was on board." "Yes, she did. Verschoyle told me he met her in Valletta on that day." Vassalla drummed quickly in an annoyed manner on the table with his fingers, then answered abruptly, "She did not come on board." "Oh!" Ronald was disappointed; were all his suspicions groundless, after all? "No; she was confined to her room all the evening with a headache." This statement, as Ronald knew, tallied with Mrs. Dexter's diary, and he felt that, after all, it might be the truth, and that Mrs. Verschoyle had not been on board; in which case--who was the assassin? Vassalla saw the expression of disbelief flitting across Ronald's expressive face, and arose to his feet. "In order to convince you," he said, quickly, "I will show you the letter I received from my cousin." "There is no need," began Ronald, but Vassalla interrupted him. "Pardon me, there is," he said coldly; "I wish you to be thoroughly convinced that Mrs. Verschoyle was not on board, and could not have either seen her husband or have had anything to do with his death." "I did not say she had," interrupted Ronald, hastily. "No, but you thought so," retorted the Marchese, as he left the room.