“Kill Eric? Joyce, you’re crazy! Why would he?”
“You know, well enough——”
“That he loved you, yes, but that wouldn’t make him commit crime. Why, you wouldn’t marry him if he won you in that way.”
“Of course, I wouldn’t. And that’s what’s worrying me. If he and Eric quarrelled about me, and if—oh, I can’t tell you just what I mean——”
“I know. If Eugene reproved Eric for his neglect of you, or—for his attentions to me, it might have led to high words, and Mr. Courtenay is a very impetuous man, and Eric never would brook a word of criticism—oh, of course I understand, Joyce!”
“But Eugene must be cleared—he must be, at any cost. Look here, Natalie, did you know Eric had left you such a big bequest?”
Natalie flushed, and began to walk nervously up and down the room. “Why,” she said, not looking at Joyce, “he told me he’d leave me a nice little sum, but he said he wasn’t going to die till he was ninety, so I didn’t pay much attention to the matter.”
“But didn’t you know the sum he mentioned in his will? Had he never told you?”
“Why do you ask that?”
“Because that will was altered. The sum he wrote for you was made ten times greater.”