"Mrs. Lilly told me."
Orchard let a glimmering smile rest on his pale lips. "Sarah Lilly?" he said musingly. "Ah, I have not seen her since we were fellow-servants together--and that was long ago. I might have married her, miss, as we liked one another. But she was married and I was married, so we couldn't come together."
"I should think not," said Beatrice, smiling at the grave way in which the old shepherd spoke. "Mrs. Lilly is a great friend of mine."
"Is she, miss? And no doubt"--he considered her still more attentively--"Mrs. Lilly told you how I came to be a shepherd?"
"Yes, she told me that."
"I did it for my nerves," said Orchard, looking away at the treeless green expanse; "they were shattered by the terrible calamity which happened in that house. The air here cured me."
"Do you know who killed Colonel Hall?"
"You are the first person who has asked me that question for many years, miss. Time was when many did so, but the Colonel has been buried these five-and-twenty years, and his terrible death is quite forgotten. I don't know who killed him--for certain, that is, miss."
"Have you no suspicion?"
"Oh yes," said Orchard calmly. "I believe that Mr. Alpenny murdered Colonel Hall to get a certain necklace."