Gebb could answer this question no more than he could the others he propounded, and vainly racked his usually inventive brain to settle on some course likely to elucidate the mystery. Finally, after mature reflection, he resolved to call upon Prain, and ask him to explain the meaning of Miss Wedderburn's fainting. The lawyer had told him to ask a certain question, and see what answer it would bring. Well, he had done so; and the answer was that the girl, without any apparent cause, had fainted. Perhaps Prain knew the reason; and since Edith refused to reveal it, his sole course was to question the solicitor. So to Prain the detective went, full of curiosity, two days after his return from the country. The interval had been filled up in attending to business unconnected with the Grangebury mystery; but now Gebb returned to it again, and sought Mr. Prain in the hope of learning something tangible. But his spirits were very low. "Well, Mr. Gebb," said brisk Mr. Prain, after greetings had passed, "I have not been idle since I saw you last I have sent a description of that necklace to the police. I have informed Mr. Alder of Miss Gilmar's death, and I have received his instructions about the will." "There is a will, then?" "Without doubt. Miss Gilmar made her will before she left the Hall." "In favour of Mr. Alder?" said Gebb. "Yes. Of course, by the will of Kirkstone's ancestor Mr. Alder becomes possessed of the Hall; but Miss Gilmar has left her personal property--that is, the money which she inherited from Laura Kirkstone--to him also. Miss Wedderburn, I am sorry to say, receives nothing." "Poor girl. She will have to leave the Hall." Prain shrugged his shoulders. "That is at her own discretion," he said, coolly. "Mr. Alder is in love with her; so if she marries him----" "She won't marry him," interrupted Gebb; "she is in love with, and engaged to, Mr. Ferris." "Ah! she told you about that scamp?" "She told me very little, Mr. Prain; but she fainted when I mentioned the man under the very general description of a lover." "She fainted! Hum!" Prain looked so serious and perplexed that Gebb was impelled to question him further touching the matter. "Why did she faint?" asked the detective, bluntly. "I don't know--that is, I can't exactly say," stammered the other. Gebb looked at the solicitor, who in his turn stared at the carpet, the ceiling, at the papers on his desk; anywhere but at his questioner. "Mr. Prain," he said seriously, "you are not treating me fairly." "I beg your pardon," said Prain, nervously--and as a rule he was not a nervous man, "I don't see how you make that out." "I do!" replied Gebb, sharply. "You know the reason of that fainting." "Perhaps I do; but I am not at liberty to reveal my knowledge. The secret is Miss Wedderburn's." "Has it anything to do with this murder?" "No," replied Prain, decisively. "That it has not." "Then why did you tell me to ask her about Ferris?"