Perry Toat looked hard at the anonymous letter, and did not answer. After a time she went to a tin box and brought out some papers, with which she compared the missive addressed to Audrey. "Let me look at the envelope, please," she said after a long pause. "Oh, here it is." She picked it up from the table and examined the postmark.
"What do you make of it?" asked Audrey, impatiently.
"Of this letter? Oh, it is written by someone who wants the case stopped."
"By the assassin?"
"Why do you think it might be the assassin?"
"Because only the assassin would like an end put to the case."
"Humph!" said Miss Toat, anxiously. "That is one view; but there is another, Miss Branwin. A certain person may be anxious to prevent your learning the truth in case it should cause you great pain."
"So the letter says," said Audrey, quickly. "But I don't understand, unless--" Suddenly she stopped, with her mouth open. "Oh!" she gasped faintly, for it had just occurred to her what Mrs. Mellop had hinted, "you don't think that my father wrote it?"
"No." Perry Toat looked astonished. "Why should you think your father--"
"It was merely an idea," interrupted Audrey, feverishly. "The fact is, a certain spiteful woman hinted that my father was glad of my mother's death, so that he could marry Miss Pearl."