"Then make love to her properly, and she'll marry you for love."
"I wish I could; but I'm not a clever chap like you, Mallow."
"My dear boy, I'm not clever; on the contrary, I'm a fool--a perfect fool, for do I not love Miss Bellairs like an idiot, when all the while I know well she is going to marry this Carson man from India?"
"So she is; that's queer," said Aldean, reflectively.
"Queer! how do you mean?"
"Oh, nothing, old man. I am thinking of this murder case; and the fact of both men coming from India struck me, that's all. You see Carson's just on his way home now."
"Is he? I didn't know that," said Mallow, alertly.
"Yes; Miss Slarge--you know, the Babylonian, mark-of-the-beast woman--told me that her sister in Bombay had written Carson was on his way home by the P. and O. liner Pharaoh."
"The Pharaoh arrived some time back," said Mallow, gloomily. "He must be at Casterwell by this time."
"He was not there two days ago when I ran up to town."