“Is very active. I deliberately went against its dictates for my father’s sake.”
“And you killed Mr. Appleby because he hounded your father in addition to the long deprivation he had imposed on him?”
“No, not that alone. Oh, I don’t want to tell you—but, if you won’t believe me otherwise, Mr. Stone, I will admit that I had a new motive——”
“A new one?”
“Yes, a secret that I learned only a day or so before—before Mr. Appleby’s death.”
“The secret was Appleby’s?”
“Yes; that is, he knew it. He told it to me. If any one else should know it, it would mean the utter ruin and desolation of the lives of my parents, compared to which this present condition of living is Paradise itself!”
“This is true, Miss Wheeler?”
“Absolutely true. Now, do you understand why I killed him?”