"Has anybody asked either of them if they are--or ever were--engaged?"
"No, sir. But if they denied it now, folks would just say the same thing."
"Yes. I see--naturally. Lady Cromarty believes it and is keeping Miss Farmond under her eye, the gossips tell me. Is that so?"
"Oh, that"s true right enough, sir."
"Who told Lady Cromarty?"
"That I do not know, sir."
Again the visitor seemed to be thinking, and again to cast his thoughts aside and take up a new aspect of the case.
"Supposing," he suggested, "we were to draw the curtains and light these candles for a few minutes? It might help us to realise the whole thing."
This suggestion pleased Mr. Bisset greatly and in a minute or two the candles were lit and the curtains drawn.
"Put the table where it stood," said Carrington. "Now which was Sir Reginald"s chair? This?"
He sat in it and looked slowly round the darkened, candle-lit library.
"Now," said he, "suppose I was Sir Reginald, and there came a tap at that window, what would I do?"
"If you were the master, sir, you"d go straight to the windie to see who it was."
"I wouldn"t get in a funk and ring the bell?"
"No fears!" said Bisset confidently.
"And any one who knew Sir Reginald at all well could count on his not giving the alarm then if they tapped at the window?"
"They could that."
Carrington looked attentively towards the window.
"Those curtains hang close against the window, I see," he observed. "A very slight gap in them would enable any one to get a good view of the room, if the blinds were not down. Were the blinds down that night?"
Bisset slapped his knee.
"The middle blind wasn"t working!" he cried. "What a fool I"ve been not to think on the extraordinar" significance of that fac"! My, the deductions to be drawn! You"ve made it quite clear now, sir. The man tappit at that windie----"
"Steady, steady!" said Carrington, smiling and yet seriously. "Don"t you go announcing that theory! If there"s anything in it--mum"s the word!
But mind you, Bisset, it"s only a bare possibility. There"s no good evidence against the door theory yet."
"Not the table being cowpit and the body moved?"
"They might be explained."
He was thoughtful for a moment and then said deliberately:
"I want--I mean you want certain evidence to exclude the door theory.
Without that, the window theory remains a guess. Sir Malcolm is in London, I understand?"
"Yes, sir."
"Likely to be coming north soon?"
"No word of it, sir."
Mr. Carrington reflected for a moment and then rose and went towards the window.
"We can draw back the curtains now," said he.
He drew them as he spoke and on the instant stepped involuntarily back and down went the small table. Miss Cicely Farmond was standing just outside, evidently arrested by the drawn curtains. Her eyes opened very wide indeed at the sight of Mr. Carrington suddenly revealed. Her lips parted for an instant as though she would cry out, and then she hurried away.
Mr. Carrington seemed more upset by this incident than one would expect from such a composed, easy-going young man.
"What will they think of me!" he exclaimed. "You must be sure to tell Miss Farmond--and Lady Cromarty too if she hears of this--that I came solely to enquire about the shootings and not to poke my nose into their library! Make that very explicit, Bisset."
Even though a.s.sured by Bisset that the young lady was the most amiable person imaginable, he was continuing to lay stress on the point when his attention was abruptly diverted by the sight of another lady in deep black walking slowly away from the house.
"Is that Lady Cromarty?" he asked, and no sooner had Bisset said "yes"
than the window was up and Mr. Carrington stepping out of it.
"I really must explain and apologise to her ladyship," said he.
"Her ladyship will never know----!" began Bisset, but the surprising visitor was already hastening after the mourning figure. Had the worthy man been able to hear the conversation which ensued he would have been more surprised still.
"Lady Cromarty, I believe?" said the stranger in a deferential voice.
She turned quickly, and her eyes searched him with that hard glance they wore always nowadays.
"Yes, I am Lady Cromarty," she said.
"Pardon me for disturbing you," said he. "It is a mere brief matter of business. I represent an insurance company to which Sir Malcolm Cromarty has made certain proposals. We are not perfectly satisfied with his statements, and from other sources learn that he is engaged to be married. I have come simply to ascertain whether that is the case."
Lady Cromarty was (as Mr. Carrington had shrewdly divined) no better versed in the intricate matter of insurance than the majority of her s.e.x, and evidently perceived nothing very unusual in this enquiry. It may be added in her excuse that the manner in which it was put by the representative of the company was a perfect example of how a business man should address a lady.
"It is the case," said she.
"May I ask your ladyship"s authority--in strict confidence of course?"
enquired the representative firmly, but very courteously.
"I learned it from my own man of business," said she.
"Thank you," said the insurance representative. "I beg that your ladyship will say nothing of my call, and I shall undertake not to mention the source of my information," and with an adequate bow he returned to the house.
Before disappearing through her library window, Mr. Carrington saw that her ladyship"s back was turned, and he then gave this candid, if somewhat sketchy, account of his interview to her butler.