"Did you see her?"
"I caught a glimpse of her when she went away from the Grange, as I happened to be looking out of the drawing-room window."
"What was she like to look at?"
"I didn't see her face. Her back was turned towards me, as she was going down the avenue."
"Oh," said Hench disappointed, "that's a pity."
"But I remember how she was dressed."
"That's better. Well?"
"She looked an untidy old thing," said Gwen, after a pause to recollect the appearance of this important stranger. "Very fat and unshapely. She wore a black dress spotted with orange dots, a black velvet mantle trimmed with jet beads, and a hat much too large for her, and----" She broke off. "What's the matter, Mr. Hench?"
Owain's sudden change of colour and sudden start at this vivid description of Madame Alpenny betrayed him immediately, and he looked confused, not very well knowing how to excuse himself. For obvious reasons he did not wish to admit that he recognized the costume described. Therefore he took refuge in a white lie, and told the first one that occurred to him. "An idea struck me, Miss Evans, that your father might have been murdered by gipsies."
"Hum!" cried Mrs. Perage, quite taken in by this plausible untruth. "That isn't at all unlikely. Madoc was hard on gipsies, especially when they poached."