'I have not the least doubt of it,' said Thornton Carey earnestly.
'I am myself inclined to that belief,' said Bryan. 'There was a singular frankness and honesty about the man, and the way in which he spoke about his wife, both to myself and Miss Montressor here, was evidently genuine; though,' he continued, with a touch of that worldly cynicism which sometimes came upon him, as it were, in spite of himself, 'these are matters in which one must never be led away by what one either sees or hears. There are men who love their wives very deeply, and who yet, when away from them, urged on by vanity or passion, or whatever they may choose to call it--'
'I know what you would say,' said Thornton Carey, holding up his hand, 'and I suppose, as regards the generality of men, you are right. But, believe me, this was not the case with Alston Griswold--his was not a mere mouth worship of his wife; no other woman, be she who she might, would have been able for an instant to make him forget her whom he so dearly loved.'
'I believe you, Mr. Carey,' said Bryan, 'and in any case I honour you for your championship; but in this case I think you are right. From the little I saw of him, I have no doubt that your friend was all you say. We will allow, then, that he dropped his own name and called himself Foster for the furtherance of certain business transactions. To obtain anything like a clue to this murder, it is necessary for us to know what those business transactions were, and whence this necessity for concealment arose; until we can obtain that, we shall still be in the dark as to the motives of the murderer.'
'I cannot help you,' said Thornton Carey, shaking his head ruefully. 'As I said before, I only knew Mr. Griswold in his domestic capacity as my friend, and the word business was never even mentioned between us.'
'You may yet be able to help us,' said Miss Montressor, leaning forward. 'This unfortunate Mr. Foster--Mr. Griswold as we must now think of him--told me that evening in the garden at Richmond that he had an intimate friend and confidant in New York, to whom during his absence he had not merely intrusted the conduct and supervision of his affairs and correspondence, but he had also placed his wife in this man's charge. Now, knowing the Griswolds as you do, you will probably be able to tell us if there is any man who stood in this relation with them and if so, what is his name?'
'This declaration goes further to corroborate your idea that the murdered man was indeed poor Griswold,' said Thornton Carey, with a sigh. 'There was a man exactly fulfilling those functions, who was understood to be a sort of partner of Griswold's in certain matters, and from whom he was never separated. I did not know that he carried the intimacy into his domestic life, and, indeed, I should have thought the person I mean was one for whom Mrs. Griswold would have had but little liking.'
'What was the name?' asked Duval eagerly.
'His name was Warren--Trenton Warren,' replied Carey. 'He was a man much thought of for his foresight and acuteness in commercial matters, and he had an office down town in Broad-street, not far from Griswold's own place of business.'
'The thing to be done, then, is to see this Mr. Warren at once,' said Bryan Duval. 'If we prove to him, as we shall be able to do, that we were friends of Mr. Griswold's, he will doubtless be able to clear up the whole mystery of the change of names.'