"Mr. Brown came to our part of the country just at the time that Sir Geoffrey came from abroad. They had met before, and there was some cause of enmity between them——"
"Stop! How do you know that?" Mr. Benjamin interrupted quickly.
She told him of Mr. Brown's admission to her, and of the tragedy of Rachel Kynaston's last words. He seemed to know something of this too.
"Any other reason?"
"He seemed agitated when he came out from the cottage, after the crime was discovered. From its situation he could easily have committed the murder and regained it unseen. It would have been infinitely easier for him to have done it than anyone else."
Mr. Benjamin looked at his father, and his father looked at him.
"Can you tell me anything at all of his antecedents?" he continued.
She shook her head.
"We knew nothing about him when he came. He never talked about himself."
"But he was your father's tenant, was he not?"