“We had disagreed,” she answered, curtly.
Peter Ruff bent his head in assent.
“I see,” he remarked. “You had disagreed. Abbott probably hoped that you would relent, so he waited for a few minutes. Brian Sotherst, who had escaped from his engagement in time, he thought, to come and wish you good night, must have walked in and found him there. By the bye, how would Captain Sotherst get in?”
“He had a key,” the girl answered. “My mother lives here with me, and we have only one maid. It was more convenient. I gave him one washed in gold for a birthday present only a few days ago.”
“Thank you,” Peter Ruff said. “The revolver, I understand, was your property?”
She nodded.
“It was a present from Brian,” she said. “He gave it to me in a joke, and I had it on the table with some other curiosities.”
“The first question,” Peter Ruff said, “is disposed of. May I proceed to the second?”
The girl moistened her lips.
“Yes!” she answered.