"Do you recollect the dress that Miss Beatrice wore when you saw her last?"

"I should think I do, sir; it was a beauty. A gray silk, it wos, with steel trimmin's. She looked lovely in it, she did."

Bob conveyed in a glance at me that he had no further questions to ask, and I took up the cue.

"You have a good memory, Barbara, and I dare say you can give me a description of Mr. Nisbet. You told us he was not a nice looking gentleman."

"Not at all, sir, though he did 'ave a 'igh fore'ead. 'E 'ad a look like ice in his eyes."

"What color were they?"

"A kind of cold blue; and 'e 'ad a red beard and mustache."

"A tall gentleman, Barbara?"

"Yes, sir. 'E didn't have no 'at on when 'e came into the kitching, and I sor that 'is 'ead wos bald in the middle, and was flattish at the top. As 'e looked round the kitching 'e put a pair of gold spectacles on, and when they wosn't on 'is eye 'e was allus a-dangling 'em with 'is fingers, twiddling 'em about like."

"You don't seem to have liked his looks?"