Mrs. Blexey: "Yes, my lord!" (with a curtsey). Belmain (facetiously): "You need not give me a title before I have earned it, my good woman." (Laughter.) Mrs. Blexey: "Oh no, my lord--I mean my dear sir." (Laughter.) When the laughter over this second form of address had subsided, Mrs. Blexey stated that the prisoner was as attached to her uncle as he was to her. They had tiffs on occasions, as Sir Oliver's temper was none of the best, but Miss Chent was never in the wrong, and usually contrived to pacify the irascible baronet. He was as fractious as a child, said the housekeeper, and required similar management. But, on the whole, he and Miss Chent--Mrs. Blexey refused to call her young mistress "the prisoner"--got on extremely well. As to the phrase about disinheriting, that was a favourite threat of Sir Oliver's, which meant practically nothing. He used it on every occasion, sometimes in earnest, and often in fun. It meant nothing, she said again. Belmain: "He meant it when the prisoner refused to marry Captain Jadby, no doubt." Mrs. Blexey (wiping her red face): "The Lord knows what he meant, sir. He was a queer gentleman." Then Belmain proceeded to question the housekeeper regarding the admission which Steve Agstone was said to have made to her. It would have been preferable to obtain the evidence of the old sailor first hand, but since he could not be discovered the Counsel got what he could out of Mrs. Blexey. And what she knew he had to drag out of her by persistent questioning, for her sympathies were entirely with the prisoner. She stated that Agstone drank a great deal, and was always in trouble with Sir Oliver on that account. But that he had been the baronet's factotum for many years he would have been dismissed dozens of times. A drunken, grumpy, sullen savage, was the description given by the housekeeper. "But he was good-natured enough when sober," she confessed, "and quite devoted to Sir Oliver." Belmain: "A kind of loyal henchman, in fact. Well, and what statement did he make to you, and when did he make it?" Mrs. Blexey: "On the morning after the murder, Agstone--or Steve as everyone called him--was drinking rum to drown his grief at the death of Sir Oliver. He sat for a long time in my room weeping, and said that he knew Miss Mona would do for her uncle. Those were his very words, and I told him that he was speaking rubbish." Belmain: "What happened then?"