Ida stared wide-eyed at the shameless looks and speech of the housekeeper, and Towton frowned. That these creatures should so audaciously confess their crimes when they knew he would shortly summon the police puzzled him greatly. Also, remembering the wonderful craft of The Spider, he felt uneasy as to what might happen, but he could not conjecture in what way she could extricate herself and her accomplice from the trap in which they were safely caught. However, he made no comment on Miss Jewin's insolence, but merely ordered her to proceed. "About thirty-five years ago," said Miss Jewin, plunging into her story without any preliminary explanation, "I was in India and nurse to Mrs. Hest, who was the wife of Captain Theodore Hest, stationed at Bombay. The Captain's father, who lived here, was angry when his son went into the Army, and cut him off with a shilling, but my master believed that if a son were born to inherit the estates his father would relent. When my mistress's baby proved to be a girl he was much disappointed. However, as his father was old and might die before he found out the trick, he sent home news that the baby was a boy, and had her baptised Francis." "So you see," broke in Miss Hest who was smoking quietly, "that my real name is Francis, and by law I am a man. As a woman I am Frances, so there is merely the difference of one letter. Go on, Sarah." "She," said Miss Jewin, pointing to her mistress, "was dressed as a boy and brought up as a boy, so that the estates might come to her. My master's father relented when he heard that he had, as he supposed, a grandson, and made a will in the boy's favour." "The boy, you understand, Colonel, being a girl--myself," said Frances for the sake of clearness. "I quite understand," said the Colonel frowning. "Go on." "Then my master and mistress were carried off within a month of one another by fever," continued Miss Jewin. "They died in Burmah, where the Captain had gone with his regiment. I then took charge of Miss Hest, who was always called Master Francis, and came to Gerby Hall. Old Mr. Hest, the grandfather, just lived six months longer, but he died under the impression that his grand-daughter was a grandson. Miss Frances thus became possessed of the property." "Didn't the lawyer know that she was a girl?" asked Towton surprised. "No. As she had always been brought up as a boy the deception was complete, sir," said Miss Jewin, using the word with shameless deliberation. "The lawyer came here and saw Miss Frances in her boy's clothes." "And in this way," explained Miss Hest, "it became current gossip in the village that I had a twin brother." "A twin sister, you mean?" said the Colonel doubtfully. "Well, you might put it that way. At all events, everyone in Bowderstyke believes to this day that there is a boy and a girl, or, rather, a man and a woman Hest. I alternately wore male and female clothes." "Why was there any need for you to wear female clothes at all?"