“Oh, Jeff—then you believe he is——”
“Why, Mrs. Wheeler, don’t you know whether your husband killed Mr. Appleby or not?”
“I don’t know! Heaven help me—how can I know? The two of them, shielding each other——”
“Wait a minute, if they are shielding each other—they’re both innocent!”
“But it isn’t that way. Mr. Wheeler said to me, at first: ‘Of course, either Maida or I did it. We both know which one did it, but if we don’t tell, no one else can know.’”
“I see that point; but I should think, knowing both so closely as you do, you could discern the truth—and”—he gazed at her steadily—“you have.”
“Yes—I have. Of course, as you say, in such intimacy as we three are, it would be impossible for me not to know.”
“And—it was Maida?”
“Yes, Jeffrey.”
“How are you certain?”