"Well, sir, the day after the funeral a young lady came to me and
inquired where a Mr Melvill Arnold had been buried. So I looked it up
in the books and told her. She's been here every day since, and put
fresh flowers there."
"A young lady! What was she like?" I inquired. "Oh, well, she's about
twenty, I should say--pretty, with dark hair, and dressed in mourning,"
he replied. "She comes each day about five, generally in a private
motor-car--a big grey car. The flowers cost her a tidy lot, I should
think, for they're not common ones."
"About five o'clock!" I exclaimed. "Has she been here to-day?"
"No. And she didn't come yesterday either," was the man's reply.
"Perhaps she'll come later on. We don't close till half-past seven just
now."
So I waited in patience in the vicinity, eagerly watching for the advent
of the one person beside myself and the undertaker who knew of the last
resting-place of the mysterious man who had deliberately destroyed his
fortune.
I wandered among the graves for a full hour, until of a sudden the
cemetery-keeper approached me, and in a low voice said--
"Look, over yonder, sir! That tall young lady in black with the
chauffeur carrying the wreath: that's the lady who comes daily to Mr
Arnold's grave."
I looked, but, curiously enough, she had turned and was leaving the spot
without depositing the wreath she had brought.
"Somebody's watching her, sir," remarked the man, "Perhaps she
recognises you. She's taking the wreath away again!"
The chauffeur was walking close behind her along the central avenue as
though about to leave the burial-ground, when of a sudden she crossed
the grass to a newly made grave, and there her man deposited the wreath.
She had detected somebody watching--perhaps she had suspicion of the
keeper in conversation with myself; at any rate, she resorted to the
ruse of placing the wreath upon the grave of a stranger.
Fortunately, I had been able to obtain a good look at her handsome,
refined features, and I decided that hers was a countenance which I
should recognise again anywhere.
I looked around, but could see no one in the vicinity to arouse her
suspicion--nobody, save myself.
Why did she hold me in fear? By what manner had she been aware of the
mysterious man's death, or that I had been his friend?
I watched her turn and leave the cemetery, followed by her motor-driver.
Why did she hold the dead man in such esteem that she came there each
day and with tender hands placed fresh flowers upon his grave? What
relation could she be? And why did she thus visit his last
resting-place in secret?
CHAPTER FOUR.
THE MAN WITH THE RED CRAVAT.
Of necessity I went down to Upton End in order to see old Tucker and his
wife, who had acted as caretakers in my absence.