The high-spirited girl spent a miserable time alone before her father appeared on the scene. She employed a few minutes in wiring to Craver, saying that she wished him to call. In one way or another Claudia determined to have an explanation, so that she might know where she was. At present she did not. Mr. Lemby made his appearance shortly before seven o'clock, and seemed to be in very good spirits. He asked for his dinner, declared that he felt better, and treated himself to a sherry and bitters so as to give zest to his meal. Then, the dinner having been cleared away, the two sat down to talk. Claudia began abruptly. "Lady Wyke was here this afternoon," she said, hurling the bombshell at her father in the hope of startling him. She failed to do so. "Yes, I know," he said, coolly. "I was wondering when you would tell me about the matter." "I waited for you to speak first," said Claudia, rather annoyed. "You should have explained things to me long ago." "I didn't think it was necessary," protested the pirate. "Not necessary? Why, dad. Sir Hector wanted to marry me while he had a wife living, and for that reason postponed our marriage." "I know, confound you," growled Lemby. "But Wyke didn't know that his wife was alive. If he had he would not have proposed to you. I suppose she told you all about the dashed thing?" "She explained much, but not all. I think you might speak, dad." "Oh, I don't mind," rejoined the old man, good-humouredly, and then and there related the past of the dead man. He stated how Lady Wyke had been the actress Maisie Chain, and how Sandal had witnessed the ill-omened wedding. Then he told Claudia about the separation, the journey to America, the presumed death in the fire at the Chicago theatre, and finally described how Lady Wyke had learnt her husband's determination to marry again. "So she came over to prevent that," he concluded, "and so completely knocked the old man off his perch that he ran away to hide from her at Hedgerton." "What did he intend to do?" asked Claudia, after she had digested the story. Lemby shrugged his shoulders. "Ask me another, my girl? I don't know. Whether he intended to lie low until he could get rid of her and marry you, or whether he intended to stick to her and chuck you I can't say. Seeing that she's a bit of a tartar, I guess he wanted to divorce her if possible." "Could he have done so?" "Lady Wyke says he couldn't, as she has always kept herself respectable." "I don't think that Sir Hector was to blame," said Claudia, after a pause "except in not telling me and you before he went to Hedgerton." "I should have squeezed the explanation out of him when I paid him that visit, my girl, if he hadn't gone to see the man who killed him." "Do you know the girl who killed him?" asked the girl in a low voice.