"No, but Emilia Saul did, and you condoned the crime."
"I deny everything! Go and get a policeman if you like."
Cuthbert walked to the door and there turned. "The statement of Emilia will make pleasant reading in court," he said.
Mrs. Octagon bounded after him and pulled him back by the coat-tails into the centre of the room. Then she locked the door and sat down. "We won't be disturbed," she said, wiping her face upon which the perspiration stood, "what do you know?"
"Everything, even to that letter you wrote to my uncle, stating he should see the pretended Selina Loach."
This was a chance shot on Mallow's part, but it told, for he saw her face change. In fact, Mrs. Octagon was the only woman who could have sent the letter. She did not attempt to deny it. "I sent that letter, as I was weary of that woman's tyranny. I thought it would get her into trouble."
"She would have got you into trouble also. Suppose she had lived and had told the story of Selina's death."
"She would have put the rope round her own neck," said Mrs. Octagon in a hollow tone, all her theatrical airs gone. "I was a fool to wait so long. For twenty years that woman has held me under her thumb. It was Emilia that made me consent to your engagement to Juliet. Otherwise," she added malevolently, "I should have died rather than have consented. Oh," she shook her hands in the air, "how I hate you and your uncle and the whole of the Mallows."
"A woman scorned, I see," said Cuthbert, rather cruelly, "well, you must be aware that I know everything."
"You don't know who killed Emilia?"