“Let me follow this up,” said Bobsy, looking at her closely. “Then Mr. Stannard was so in love with you that he called on you in a desperate moment, rather than on his wife——”
“But he didn’t know it was a desperate moment. I don’t believe that man was conscious at all. The stab wound was practically fatal at once. What he said and did after it, was involuntary. Don’t you know what I mean? He was only half alive physically and almost not at all alive in his mind—his brain. Couldn’t that be true?”
“I suppose so. In fact, I think it must have been—and yet, no, it seems to me it would be logical for him to tell, even without a clear consciousness, who his assailant was. Remember Blake asked him outright. ‘Who did this?’ and he said——”
“I know; but you didn’t see him, and I did. He was not looking at Blake, he didn’t even hear him. He was in a dazed state, and, seeing both Joyce and myself,—he must have seen us both,—his sub-consciousness called out for me. I am not vain of this preference, I wish it had all been otherwise, but I insist that explains his words, and—Joyce knows it, too.”
“How do you know she does? Have you talked with her on this subject?”
“Oh, yes. We have discussed it over and over. Mrs. Faulkner and Joyce and Barry and I have gone over every bit of it a dozen times.”
“Is it possible? What does each of the four think? Since you deny the deed, you can tell what is the consensus of opinion in the household.”
“That’s just what I can’t do. You see, we all hesitate to say anything that will seem to accuse either of us. Mrs. Faulkner, I can see plainly, is uncertain whether to suspect Joyce or me. She is convinced, of course, that it must have been one of us, but she pretends to think it was a burglar.”
“She is fond of you both?”
“Yes, she adores Joyce, and she is most friendly to me. I’ve only known her since I’ve been here, but she seems to believe in me, somehow. She understands perfectly, that Mr. Stannard meant just what I say he did, by those words. She knows how he acted toward me, and how Joyce felt about it.”