"'No, he didn't. Mr. Jessup told Mr. Leighton to wait, and then he went away without seeing him.' "'That's funny,' Mrs. Tufnell remarked, dryly. 'What was Mr. Leighton doing in the house, then, all this time? I heard the front-door bell half an hour ago and more.' "'That's no business of yours, Aunt Sarah,' the girl retorted pertly. 'And it wasn't half an hour, so there!' "Mrs. Tufnell did not argue the point any further. Mechanically she went downstairs and ascertained in point of fact that the door of the office and the show-room on the ground floor were both locked as usual, and that the key of the office was outside in the lock. This was entirely in accordance with custom. Mrs. Tufnell, through force of habit, did just turn the key and open the door of the office. She just peeped in to see that the lights were really all out. Satisfied that everything was dark she then closed and relocked the door. Ann, in the meanwhile, stood half-way up the stairs watching. Then the two women went upstairs together. They had only just got back in their room when the front-door bell rang once more. "'Now, whoever can that be?' Mrs. Tufnell exclaimed. "'Don't trouble, aunt,' Ann said with alacrity. 'I'll run down and see.' Which she did. Again it was some time before she came back, and when she did get back to her room, she seemed rather breathless and agitated. "'Some one for Mr. Jessup,' she said in answer to Mrs. Tufnell's rather acid remark that she had been gone a long time. 'He kept me talking ever such a while. I don't think he believed me when I said Mr. Jessup had gone.' "'Who was it?' witness asked. "'I don't know,' the girl replied. 'I never saw him before.' "'Didn't you ask his name?' "'I did. But he said it didn't matter--he would call again to-morrow.' "After that the two women sat for a little while longer, Mrs. Tufnell sewing, and Ann still rather restlessly turning over the pages of a magazine. At ten o'clock they went to bed. And that was the end of the day as far as the household of Mr. Jessup was concerned. "You may well imagine that all the amateur detectives who were present at the inquest had made up their minds by now that Arthur Leighton had murdered Mr. Seton Jessup, and robbed the till both before and after the crime. It was a simple deduction easily arrived at and presenting the usual features. A flirty minx, an enamoured young man, extravagance, greed, opportunity, and supreme temptation. Amongst the public there were many who did not even think it worth while to hear further witnesses. To their minds the hangman's rope was already round young Leighton's neck. Of course, I admit that at this point it seemed a very clear case. It was only after this that complications arose and soon the investigations bristled with difficulties. §4