"I see a lovely girl and an accomplished lady, a good daughter and an honorable gentlewoman."
"Four people rolled into one," sneered the spiteful little creature, quivering with wrath. "She may be lovely in your eyes--I know what fools men are--but, good and honorable she is not."
"Prove what you say," I cried, but she only trotted about the room, tremulous with anger and jealousy. I determined to enrage her still further, as if she completely lost her temper she might unexpectedly come out with all she knew. I was therefore pointedly rude. "The fact is, Miss Destiny, you are jealous of your niece's beauty."
"Me!" she quavered, and her eyes flamed, "me jealous?"
"Yes, you are also annoyed because your niece has Gabriel Monk's money."
"Has she? If she has, she committed murder to get it."
"That's a lie."
"You forget, sir, that you speak to a lady."
"I do not," I retorted, still carrying out my plan, "I am speaking to a jealous old woman who is trying to harm an innocent girl."
This last speech brought about the desired result. "Innocent!" she cried, and stamped her foot, "if she is innocent, what was she doing at Anne Caldershaw's on the night of the murder."