"Oh, we are only a couple of adventuresses," said Mrs. Berch ironically, "we deceived everyone, even Gerald's mother, who was as kind and good a woman as ever breathed."
"Don't," muttered the young man softly.
"I am only praising the dead," said Mrs. Berch stolidly. "I say no evil of her. Well then, we were in desperate straits, else I never would have hit on the desperate scheme of getting Bellaria to kidnap Mavis, which was what it amounted to. I told Madge nothing, save, that I wanted to see Major Rebb. We informed Gerald that we were going to Bognor, and we really were going. But, by my plan, we came to Devonshire, and Madge got one of her friends to lend her a motor. She drives excellently, and as we were at Belldown before, she knows the country. I pretended that Major Rebb was at the Pixy's House and had arranged to see me at midnight. This I told my daughter."
"And you believed so ridiculous a story?" said Morgan, fixing an official eye on the shrinking woman. But she only moaned.
"Leave her alone. I am to blame," said Mrs. Berch sharply, "and the murder of Bellaria was pure accident."
"Pure accident!" muttered Arnold ironically.
Mrs. Berch turned on him with a wintry smile. "Yes, sir. The car broke down--that was really an accident. While Madge was seeing what was the matter I said that I would walk on and inquire if Major Rebb was at the house, and could take us in for the night. I came to the gates and waited for a time. Bellaria came at length. She opened the gates in fear and trembling, and was armed with a large yellow-handled knife."
"Dat my knife," muttered the negro, and rolled his eyes.
"I explained who I was, and told her about the marriage. I said that I could put Venosta, as representing the society, on her track, unless she took Mavis to Italy, and kept her single. I promised her a pension, but the foolish creature," Mrs. Berch shrugged her shoulders, "would listen to nothing. She refused to go to Italy, saying that she would be killed there. I showed her the coral hand, and she tried to snatch it from me. We struggled, and she lost her head, saying that I had come to kill her. Once she wounded me in the arm," here Mrs. Berch rolled up her sleeve and showed a newly healed scar of considerable dimensions, "so I tried to take the knife from her. Then----"
"Then?" said Morgan, speaking for the others, who were all tongue-tied and staring at the terrible recital.