Naturally Mr. and Mrs. Shawe did not care about interrupting their honeymoon by a visit to town, especially on an errand connected with criminal matters. But the necessity of taking such a journey was very great, seeing that Perry Toat assured them how the arranged interview with Madame Coralie and her husband would probably clear up matters in a surprising way. Apparently the detective knew much more than she was prepared to admit, for once or twice she looked at the young couple in an odd way. Ralph saw her stealthy glances, but did not ask her in the presence of his wife what they meant. Warned by experience, he hesitated to be too abrupt in his questioning. He did not know what astonishing fact might be told.
But the young man did express surprise when he examined the photograph of Madame Coralie. It was the woman herself without doubt, for her face, although looking much younger, was too strongly marked to be mistaken. She was dressed as a nurse, and looked quite pretty, as her figure was more shapely and the garb became her. Of course, the birthmark was not revealed by the photographic process, or if it had been--Ralph was not sufficiently an expert to know--was eliminated carefully, so that the subject of the portrait might appear at her best.
"Where did you get this?" asked Ralph, when the trio walked back to the Three Fishers to get ready for the midday journey.
"I have been hunting for it for a long time," replied Perry Toat, replacing the photograph in her pocket, "and at length procured it from an old servant of Colonel Ilse, who had been in the house when Madame Coralie acted as nurse to Mrs. Ilse. She called herself Mrs. Askew then."
"Askew, Askew!" muttered Shawe, musingly. "And her true name is Arkwright."
"She used a false name with the same initial letter because of the marks on her linen, no doubt," said Miss Toat. "Of course, this portrait was taken more than twenty years ago, but there is sufficient resemblance for me to recognise it as that of Madame Coralie."
"But as she always wears a yashmak--"
"You forget my midnight exploration of the Pink Shop, when I saw Madame Coralie in bed without the yashmak and by the light of my bull's-eye lantern," said the detective, quickly.
"Then you are sure that she is the nurse who stole the child?"
"Quite sure. It appears she was jealous of Mrs. Ilse, as she was in love with the Colonel at the time, although she had no grounds to go upon. He was not the Colonel then, of course."