“Perhaps not, but the picture he found was not the one he had been carrying with him.”
“Why?”
“The study had been changed—I mean its arrangement; therefore the possible effect that might have been produced if he had seen the picture in actual existence did not take place.”
“Go on,” he said tensely.
“But if on the other hand, and without expecting it, Martin were brought suddenly face to face with that picture, if the study were reset just as it was before, and if”—here she trembled, and went on bravely—“if he thought he saw father lying there as he did see him two years ago, don’t you think that something real and truthful might be startled out of him?”
“By Jove!” whispered Derrick. “Do you mean it?”
She nodded. “Yes, all of it. I don’t just know how I feel it, but I know, here.” She touched her breast. “It’s the right thing to do.”
“Would you help?”
“Yes.”
“I hate to ask it. And if it’s attempted Perkins must know nothing about it.”