Presently Mr. Flexen came back, and as he walked round the room, examining the rest of it, especially the carpet, Mr. Manley studied the man himself, the detective type. He was about five feet eight, broad-shouldered out of proportion to that height, but thin. He had an uncommonly good forehead, a square, strong chin, a hooked nose and thin, set lips, which gave him a rather predatory air, belied rather by his pleasant blue eyes. The sun wrinkles round their corners and his sallow complexion gave Mr. Manley the impression that he had spent some years in the tropics and suffered for it. When Mr. Flexen had examined the room, though Inspector Perkins had already done so, he felt round the cushions of the easy chair in which Lord Loudwater had been stabbed, found nothing, and stood beside it in quiet thought. Then he looked at Mr. Manley and said: "The murderer must have been some one with whom Lord Loudwater was so familiar that he took no notice of his or her movements, for he came up to him from the front, or walked round the chair to the front of him, and stabbed him with a quite straightforward thrust. Lord Loudwater should have actually seen the knife--unless by any chance he was asleep." "He was sure to be asleep," said Mr. Manley quickly. "He always did sleep in the evening--generally from the time he finished his cigar till he went to bed. I think he acquired the habit from coming back from hunting, tired and sleepy. Besides, I came down for a drink between eleven and twelve, and I'm almost sure I heard him snore. He snored like the devil." "Slept every evening, did he? That puts a different complexion on the business," said Mr. Flexen. "The murderer need _not_ have been any one with whom he was familiar." "No. He need not. But are you quite sure that the wound wasn't self-inflicted--that it wasn't a case of suicide?" said Mr. Manley. "No, I'm not; and I don't think that that doctor--what's his name? Thornhill--can be sure either. But why should Lord Loudwater have committed suicide?" "Well, he had found out, or thought he had found out, something about Lady Loudwater, and was threatening to start an action against her for divorce. At least, so her maid told me this morning. And as he wholly lacked balance, he might in a fury of jealousy have made away with himself," said Mr. Manley thoughtfully. "Was he so fond of Lady Loudwater?" said Mr. Flexen in a somewhat doubtful tone. He had heard stories about Lord Loudwater's treatment of his wife. "He didn't show any great fondness for her, I'm bound to say. In fact, he was always bullying her. But he wouldn't need to be very fond of any one to go crazy with jealousy about her. He was a man of strong passions and quite unbalanced. I suppose he had been so utterly spoilt as a child, a boy, and a young man, that he never acquired any power of self-control at all." "M'm, I should have thought that in that case he'd have been more likely to murder the man," said Mr. Flexen.