"And now?" She bent forward eagerly.
"Now I think that if she had come to you for refuge she would get help from you. I can see that you also believe her guiltless."
"I do," said Mrs. Cairns in a low voice. "I have known Anne for years and I am certain that she is not the woman to do a thing like this. She would not harm a fly."
"Then you can help me. You know where she is?"
Mrs. Cairns looked at his flushed face, at the light in his eyes. In her shrewd way she guessed the secret of this eagerness. "Then you love her," she said under her breath. "You love Anne."
"Why do you say that?" asked Giles, taken aback. He was not prepared to find that she could read him so easily.
"I remember," said Mrs. Cairns to herself, but loud enough for him to hear, "there was a Society paper said something about jealousy being the motive of the crime, and——"
"Do you mean to say that such a statement was in the papers?" asked Ware angrily, and with a flash of his blue eyes.
"It was in none of the big daily papers, Mr. Ware. They offered no explanation. But some Society reporter went down to Rickwell; to gather scandal from the servants, I suppose."
"Off from Mrs. Parry," muttered Giles; then aloud, "Yes?"