Even more important was the fact that this admission of Colonel Grey assured him that neither he nor Lady Loudwater had committed the murder. Grey had evidently lied to shield her. He had no less evidently learned that she did not need shielding. That admission had not at all simplified the problem. The next morning Scotland Yard telegraphed to him the reply to its cable to Captain Shepherd. It ran: _Loudwater allowed Mrs. Helena Truslove Crest Loudwater six hundred a year and gave her Crest_. He had the mysterious woman at last! He drove over to the Crest at once and learned from the caretaker that Mrs. Truslove was now living in London in a flat at Clarence Gate. He could not get away from his work till the afternoon, and it was past half-past four when he knocked at the door of her flat. The maid led him down the passage, opened the door on the right, and announced him. Helena was sitting beside a table on which afternoon tea for two was set. She looked surprised to hear his name. "Mrs. Truslove?" he said. "I was Mrs. Truslove," she said, rising and holding out her hand. "But now I am Mrs. Manley. You know my husband. He will be so pleased to see you again. I'm expecting him every minute." Mr. Flexen was for a moment conscious of a slight sensation of vertigo. The mysterious woman was the wife of Herbert Manley! He could not at once see the bearings of this fact, but ideas, fancies and suspicions raced one another through his head. He checked them and said in a somewhat toneless voice: "I shall be delighted to see him again. Have you been married long?" "Rather more than a fortnight." said Helena. "But do sit down. My husband will be so pleased to see you again. He has a great admiration for you." Mr. Flexen sat down and unconsciously stared hard at her. Ideas were jostling one another in his head. "We won't wait for him. I'll have the tea made at once," she said, bending forward to press the bell-button. "One moment, please," he said in his crispest, most official voice. "I've come to see you on a very important matter." "Oh?" she said quickly, frowning. Then she looked at him with steady eyes. "Yes. You know that I am investigating the Loudwater case, and I have received information that you are the mysterious lady who visited Lord Loudwater on the night of his death and had a violent quarrel with him." "We began by quarrelling," she said quietly. "_Began_ by quarrelling?" said Mr. Flexen.