“Naturally,” Peter Ruff answered. “If your supposition is correct, she might easily give herself away under a little subtle cross-examination. It is my business to know how to ask people questions in such a way that if they do not speak the truth their words give some indication of it. If she is innocent I shall know that I have to make my effort in another direction.”
“What other direction can there be?” Lady Mary asked dismally.
Peter Ruff said nothing. He was too kind-hearted to kindle false hopes.
“It’s a hopeless case, of course,” Miss Brown remarked, after Lady Mary had departed.
“I’m afraid so,” Peter Ruff answered. “Still I must earn my money. Please get some one to take you to supper to-night at the Milan, and see if you can pick up any scandal.”
“About Letty?” she asked.
“About either of them,” he answered. “Particularly I should like to know if any explanation has cropped up of her supping alone with Austen Abbott.”
“I don’t see why you can’t take me yourself,” she remarked. “You are on the side of the law this time, at any rate.”
“I will,” he answered, after a moment’s hesitation. “I will call for you at eleven o’clock to-night.”
He rose and closed his desk emphatically.