"Of course," he said, "she tells you everything."
She nodded, in all good faith—
"Besides, Clare was in the mistresses' room."
"Impossible for her to have spoken with Louise?"
"Quite. Clare would have told me——"
"Yet there remains the fact that Louise was, as you say, happier after seeing you. Within fifteen minutes, she is dead. Either she went mad—which I don't believe, do you?"
"I want to——"
"But you don't—knowing the child. Neither do I, from what you tell me. She seems to have been horribly sane. Sane enough, anyhow, to throw off a burden. So if, as we agree, she didn't suddenly go mad—something occurred to change her mood of comparative happiness to actual despair. I think, if you ask me, that she did see Miss Hartill after she left you."
"But Clare would have told me," repeated Alwynne stubbornly.
"I'm not so sure."