"Is that true?"
"Absolutely."
And Royle sat down suddenly.
"That's the best piece of news I have ever had in my life," he cried. Now for a sure thing the victory was his. He went home that evening in the highest spirits.
"What do you think, Ina, I discovered to-day?" he blurted out. "You'll be as glad to hear as I was. Raymond Byatt didn't kill himself for you, after all. He did it to save himself from a prosecution for forgery."
There was a moment's silence, and then Ina replied:
"Indeed!" and that was all. But Dorman Royle, to his perplexity, detected a certain unexpected iciness in her voice. Somehow that new insight which Groome had discovered in him had on this evening failed him altogether.