“I doubt it. If it had been financial, he might have told me, as I frequently had to write letters for him regarding his investments and so forth. But otherwise I am quite sure he would not. Mr. Stanworth was very reticent indeed about his personal affairs.” “I see. He was comfortably off, wasn’t he?” “Very. You might call it more than that.” “Rich, in fact. And how were his investments laid out? Did he, for instance, put most of his money into one concern?” “You mean, was he in a position to be ruined by the failure of any single business? No, I’m sure he wasn’t. His money was spread over a large number of investments; and to my certain knowledge he still has a very large sum indeed in Government stock.” “Then we can take it as fairly sure that, whatever caused him to take his life, it was nothing to do with money matters?” “Yes, I’m quite convinced of that.” “Then we must look elsewhere. Now, had Mr. Stanworth any relations besides his sister-in-law?” “Not to my knowledge, and I’ve been with him six years. He had a younger brother, of course, Lady Stanworth’s husband; but I’ve never heard of any others.” “I see. Well, Major Jefferson, am I to take it that you can’t throw any light at all on the reasons for Mr. Stanworth’s suicide? Think carefully, if you please. Suicide is a pretty serious step, and the reasons must be correspondingly serious. The coroner is bound to do his best to bring them to light.” “I haven’t the least idea,” said Jefferson quietly. “It is the last thing in the world I should have expected from Mr. Stanworth.” The inspector turned to Roger. “Now, sir, you were in the garden with him last evening at ten. What happened after that?” “Oh, we didn’t stay out very long after that. Not more than twenty minutes, I should say. I had some work to do, and we went in together.” “What were you talking about in the garden?” “Roses chiefly. He was very keen on roses and took a lot of interest in the rose garden here.” “Did he seem cheerful?” “Very. He always struck me as an exceptionally cheerful person. Genial, in fact.” “Did anything he said lead you to think that he might be contemplating taking his life? Not at the time, of course; but looking back on it. No casual remark, or anything like that?” “Good heavens, no! On the contrary, he talked quite a lot about the future. What part of the country he was going to stay in next year, and that sort of thing.” “I see. Well, what happened when you went in?” “We met Mrs. Plant in the hall, and he stopped to speak to her. I went on to the drawing room to get a book I’d left there. When I came back they were still in the hall talking. I said good-night to both of them and went on up to my room. That was the last I saw of him.” “Thank you. Then you can’t help, either?” “Not in the least, I’m afraid. The whole thing beats me completely.” The inspector looked at Alec. “And you, sir? When did you see him last?”