"But, after all, it will be to die, Mr. Heron," she said, sadly. "I am very ill; trouble, exposure and mental worry have been too much for me. The doctor saw me two days ago, and has ordered my removal to the Infirmary." Geoffrey looked at her, and, true enough, there was death in her face. A few weeks were all of life left to her now. And yet on hearing Geoffrey's news, the bold spirit flamed up again in her for the last time. "I am sure you are right, Mr. Heron!" she said, feverishly. "Mr. Marshall is the guilty person. He was always a scamp and a rake. There is no doubt that it was for the purpose of blackmailing him that my husband came down to Westham on the night he was murdered; in fact, he said as much to me at the Turnpike House. Do you know that he had met Marshall on that very night?" "No; you did not tell me that." "I forgot; besides, I really did not think it mattered. I did not expect that Mr. Marshall would be brought into the affair. He was always cunning enough to look after himself. At that time he was engaged to marry Miss Cass, and she loved him with the fierceness of a tigress." "Do you mean the present Mrs. Marshal?" "Who else should I mean? She always loved him. He had a strange fascination for women: why, I don't know, for he was not particularly good-looking or attractive. But Miss Inez loved him, and it was within two months of the murder that they were married. I was in prison then, as I am now, and under sentence of death." "Then you think that Marshall killed your husband?" "I do," she said, with a look of hatred in her large blue eyes. "I feel certain of it. Look at the motive he had! He was engaged to marry Miss Inez Cass: she was rich and he needed money; then again there was some talk of his leaving the firm. I believe myself that Mr. Cass was quite tired of the way he was going on." "I wonder that Mr. Cass--knowing him as he did--did not forbid the marriage." "What would have been the use? His sister was her own mistress; she had her own money--a large fortune--and she was madly in love with Marshall. She would have done anything for him; she simply grovelled at his feet. Her infatuation was the talk of all Westham at the time I was starving at the Turnpike House.' "Extraordinary!" mused Geoffrey. "She is so masterful a woman that I wonder she could have fallen in love with so weak a man." "It is one of those things in which a woman's nature is stronger than her principles," said Mrs. Jenner. "Besides, he was fascinating, and she was no longer a young woman," she added, with a touch of feminine spite. "At any rate, she was delighted when he fell in love with her, and determined not to let him go." "Was he in love with her?" "No: perhaps I was wrong to put it that way. No doubt he wanted her money. Did he leave the firm?" "Yes; shortly after his marriage."