"No. She knew absolutely nothing, and only attacked Deborah because she fancied Deborah was attacking Maud. However, the two sisters have made it up, and Matilda has gone back to 'The Red Pig.' She's as decent a creature as Deborah, in another way, and was absolutely ignorant of Maud's wickedness. Hurd guessed that when she spoke to him so freely at Christchurch."
"And the Thug?"
"Hokar? Oh, he is not really a Thug, but the descendant of one. However, they can't prove that he strangled anything beyond a few cats and dogs when he showed Maud how to use the roomal—that's the handkerchief with which the Thugs strangled their victims."
"I'm not absolutely ignorant," growled his father. "I know that. So this Hokar goes free?"
"Yes. He would not strangle Aaron Norman because he had but one eye, and Bhowanee won't accept maimed persons. Failing him, Maud had to attend to the job herself, with the assistance of Tray."
"And this detective?"
"Oh, Ford, with Sylvia's sanction, has paid him the thousand pounds, which he shares with his sister, Aurora Qian. But for her searching at Stowley and Beechill, we should never have known about the marriage, you know."
"No, I don't know. They're far too highly paid. The marriage would have come to light in another way. However, waste your own money if you like; it isn't mine."
"Nor mine either, father," said Paul, sharply. "Sylvia will keep her own fortune. I am not a man to live on my wife. I intend to take a house in town when we are married, and then I'll still continue to write."