"Of course," he replied, stolidly. "I will arrange everything."
Mrs. Belswin looked at him steadily, and then left the room with the heart-broken daughter, while Dombrain, left alone beside the corpse, drew a long breath.
"What nerve," he said, under his breath; "what nerve."
The police came, took possession of the house, brought down detectives from London, questioned every one, held an inquest, and--discovered nothing. Well; it was a difficult case. The police are not infallible; therefore they failed to discover the murderer of Sir Rupert Pethram. If it had been a low London murder case, for instance, of the Whitechapel poker sort, then, indeed, the criminal would not have escaped human justice; but in this affair it was impossible to move in any direction. Justice promised to do what she could, and did nothing. That bandage over her eyes is often in the way, and in this instance blinded her altogether; so whomsoever had killed Sir Rupert Pethram was quite safe, as far as this stupid, blind, blundering Justice was concerned.
Of course the police had a theory which explained everything, and accomplished nothing. The daily papers argued one way, the police argued another, the public gave their view of the matter; and after great cry, there was little wool.
Sir Rupert, according to an intelligent jury, came by his death at the hands of a person unknown, a verdict which was vague, and might mean anything. Then he was placed in the family vault, and the title and estates went to a distant cousin; Kaituna left Thornstream a penniless orphan, and a new order of things began.
The new heir was a man of business, who was hard, and prided himself on being hard. He had a large family; and thinking the Thornstream rents was quite small enough to rear his dozen children--male and female in equal proportion--declined to do anything for Kaituna, whom he scarcely knew.
Mrs. Belswin, thereupon, stepped forward, and took Kaituna off to London with her to see Mr. Dombrain, and ascertain, if possible, what private property Sir Rupert had died possessed of. Mr. Dombrain was quite happy to oblige Mrs. Belswin in every way and did what he could; but that was comparatively little; so little indeed, that it made no difference in the financial position of Kaituna, and she remained dependent on the bounty of Mrs. Belswin.
But Archie Maxwell! Oh, he behaved admirably. On hearing of the death of Sir Rupert, through the medium of the press, he came down at once to Deswarth, consulted with Toby, and made every effort to find out the assassin of Sir Rupert, but without success. Then he proposed to marry Kaituna as soon as possible after the death of her father, which arrangement was approved of by Mrs. Belswin, who added, however, that they could not marry on nothing; and as Archie was not rich, and Kaituna was now poor, there was nothing left for them but to wait.
This Archie agreed to do, after much persuasion, but meantime was with Kaituna as often as possible. He came up to London with Mrs. Belswin, helped her to select a comfortable lodging; and when his sweetheart and her chaperon were established, went off on his own account to see Mr. Dombrain.