It seemed that soon after Phyllis Considine came to Ashburton as the bride of Charles Berlyn she found she had made a terrible mistake in her marriage. The feeling which she had imagined was love died away, and she saw herself tied for life to a man whom she disliked. A mutual coldness inevitably resulted, which rapidly widened as the husband also found himself disillusioned. On Phyllis’s side less than a year sufficed to turn it into a bitter hatred. Under these miserable circumstances she began to look elsewhere for companionship, and Stanley Pyke, who found himself strongly attracted to his former playmate, was only too ready to fill the breach. They saw a good deal of each other and the inevitable happened. Before long both were deeply in love. Though they were careful to act discreetly when under observation, they were not careful enough, and Berlyn became aware of what was going on. He at once remonstrated with his wife, finally telling her in no ambiguous terms that if given cause he would not hesitate to divorce her. If this had been all, Phyllis would no doubt have eagerly seized so complete a solution of her difficulty, but both she and Pyke saw that it was by no means all. Berlyn, as joint owner of the business, would certainly have dismissed Pyke as well as cut Phyllis out of his will. The couple would, therefore, have been without money or prospects. This she was not prepared for, and while admitting unwise behaviour, she denied that there was anything serious in her relations with Pyke and undertook that Berlyn should have no further cause of complaint. Then she began to meet Pyke secretly, and gradually the terrible solution which they afterwards adopted grew subconsciously in both their minds. If Berlyn should die, the whole situation would be straightened out. From that time, the idea of murder was never far from the thoughts of either. But they could see no way in which the dreadful deed could be safely accomplished. Pyke, however, was sufficiently callous and far-seeing to suggest the flirtation with Domlio, partly as a proof that the lady’s feeling for himself was a thing of the past, and partly lest a scapegoat should afterwards be wanted in connection with the murder. Then came Jefferson’s visit and the cousins’ holiday and Jefferson’s unexpected death. Pyke was about to give up the tour and come home when it suddenly struck him that here was the solution for which he and Phyllis had been looking. He travelled up to Paris and there spent a few days in working out his plan. The idea of diverting suspicion from the murder of Berlyn by staging the accident on the moor had already occurred to him. But this plan had the objection that it involved his own disappearance as well as Berlyn’s. If, however, he disappeared, the whole fruits of the murder would be lost, as he was committing it simply to enable him to marry Phyllis. Jefferson’s death showed him how he might escape this dilemma.