"So she did," admitted Gerald quickly. "Mrs. Crosbie would have been arrested as an accomplice after the fact, and in any case would have sunk into poverty without her mother to help her. Mrs. Berch of course thought she would be hanged, although, seeing how she swore that the crime was accidental, extenuating circumstances might have been found. I suppose Mrs. Berch, who was frantically fond of her daughter, thought it best they should go together. Madge certainly would have lived, poor soul, in spite of all her misery, as she loved life. But Mrs. Berch pulled her down, and they are buried in Leegarth cemetery----"
"Beside Bellaria!" said Mavis, with a shiver. "How strange."
"The punishment of providence, my dear," said Mrs. Pelham Odin rebukingly. "The murderess was laid beside her victim. A wicked woman----"
"No," said Gerald, throwing up his hand. "Don't call her that."
"But she murdered----"
"I believe that the crime really was committed accidentally. And as she and poor Madge have paid for their sins let us leave them to God, Mrs. Pelham Odin. Who are we to judge, and, as was revealed at the inquest, those two women had suffered much misery and trouble."
"I wonder how they managed to deceive the tradesmen for so long," said the old actress musingly. "I am sure my tradesmen always make me pay every month. But look at the thousands they owed and----"
"It would all have been paid had Mrs. Crosbie married the Major."
"I daresay--with Mavis' six thousand a year."
"I have only three thousand," said Mrs. Haskins: "Charity has the rest."