"A very strange one, taken in conjunction with that dagger and the relationship, of which I am fully convinced. Did you give Mr. Calvert the latch-key?" asked Julia suddenly.
"How dare you say that! Do you accuse me of aiding Arnold to kill the woman?"
"Ah! you admit that he killed her then?" said Mrs. Fane quickly.
"No! no! you confuse me. The idea is ridiculous. I am losing my head over your talk." Laura walked to and fro in an agitated manner. "He did not--he did not. What motive could he have for killing----"
"Laura"--Mrs. Fane rose with a determined air--"you know something, I am sure. Walter noticed that you are not such good friends with this man as you used to be. What do you know?"
"Nothing!" panted Laura, as Mrs. Fane seized both her elbows and looked into her eyes. "Let me go, Julia!"
"Not until you tell me----"
"Mrs. Baldwin," said the voice of the footman, and he threw open the door. In a moment Mrs. Fane was her conventional self, and was holding out her hand to the visitor. "How good of you to come," she said in her sweetest tones. "Laura and I were acting a scene in a play she is going to appear in. Amateur theatricals, you know," said Mrs. Fane, giving the old lady no time to speak. "She takes the part of a girl who is rather tragic. Do sit down, Mrs. Baldwin. The tea will be up soon. How well you are looking."
Bewildered under this torrent of words Mrs. Baldwin, whose brain never moved very fast, sat down on the sofa and tried to recover herself.
Laura, thankful to Julia for once in her life, concealed the dagger in her pocket and retired to the window to recover her calmness. The accusation of Julia had taken her by surprise, and she had been thrown off her guard. As a matter of fact she did know something, but Julia with her unsympathetic manner was the last person in whom she felt inclined to confide. The two sisters in dispositions and tastes were as far asunder as the poles.