"Therefore," resumed Dombrain, coldly, "I hid myself, but I watched the door of the study. You entered there, and the door was closed. A long time passed--the servants put out the lights, shut up the house, and retired to rest. Miss Pethram, I have learned since, retired early on account of a headache, and as the whole Thornstream household kept country hours, by the time the clock struck ten--the hall clock I am speaking of--all the house was asleep except you, Sir Rupert, and myself. The half-hour sounded, still you had not left the study--the three-quarters struck, but the door was still closed. I waited, and waited, and wondered. Eleven sounded from the clock in the hall, and at a few minutes past the door opened, and you appeared, pale and ghastly, like a guilty spectre. Closing the door softly after you, with a furtive look round, lest some one should be watching, you fled upstairs, brushed past me, and went into your bedroom. This was all I wanted to see. I knew you had met your husband, that he had not turned you out of the house, so never dreaming that you had committed a crime to screen your real self, I went to bed. Next morning----" He flung open his arms with a dramatic gesture, quite in keeping with the stagey way in which he had told the story, and became silent, with his small eyes viciously fastened on the unfortunate woman before him. She was sitting like an image of stone, pale and still, with tightly compressed lips, and a lurid fire burning in her fierce eyes. Only the nervous working of her hands lying in her lap betrayed her deep agitation, and when he had finished, she looked at him with a smile of disdain. "And you saw all this wonderful thing like a cat in the dark," she said, scoffingly. "No! You know perfectly well that the hall lamp was still lighted, for Sir Rupert himself had told the servants not to wait up, as he would work late, and he would put it out himself. I saw perfectly well all I have described and you know it." "So you think I killed my husband?" "I'm sure of it. According to the evidence at the inquest, the time of his death was between ten and eleven. I can prove that you left the room at eleven o'clock, so you must have left your dead husband behind you." "If you saw all this, why did you not tell it at the inquest?" "Because I wished to spare you." "No! No! Don't lie to me like that. I am your bitter enemy! Why did you spare me?" "I will tell you. Whether you killed Sir Rupert or not was nothing to me, personally. My reputation as a lawyer is a great deal to me. Had I denounced you, the result would have been----" "That I should have told all about you, and you would have been struck off the rolls. Ah! I thought you had some motive for sparing me. Well, what do you intend to do now?" "Tell all, unless you promise to leave Oates alone." "If you do your position will still be lost."