"You don't say so! Go on."
"Well, Milly did perish by violence the next night. I truly believe that she met Lovel in the Winding Lane, and that he killed her."
"Why should he kill her? He loved her."
"He did--so much that he killed her rather than that Mr. Herne should marry her. I tell you, Paul, that Mr. Lucas is a man of violent passions, and I believe he was egged on by Mother Jimboy to the murder."
"Why should Mother Jimboy desire Milly's death?"
"I don't know; no more than I can guess why she provided that lying alibi. I am sure that Lovel shot Milly, and then went across the common to Mother Jimboy's tent so as to appear innocent."
"But why do you believe all this?"
"Because of the prophecy which was fulfilled; because of the unexplained association of Mother Jimboy and Lovel, and because I saw Lovel when I went out after midnight."
"You saw Lovel?" said Paul, incredulously.
"Yes; I fancied that Dr. Lester might have killed Milly; and to save him I went to look for him. I could not find him on the fatal spot, but there was a man there who ran away when he heard my approach. I saw his face in the moonlight. He was Mr. Lovel."