"The police. O Gerty, will they bring the police into the matter?"
"Of course. It was a policeman who found the body last night."
"How did the policeman enter the house?" asked Laura. "It's shut up, and not even a caretaker was left."
"I don't know the whole story. Luther would not tell me much." Here Gerty looked at her friend. "Laura, I thought you went to the house last night."
"No," said Laura, after a moment's hesitation. "I told you that I was going to meet Arnold. You know that I have to meet him by stealth, since Julia objects to our engagement. It is not likely we would meet at the house--especially as it is locked up."
"Did you meet him?" asked Gerty persistently and curiously.
"I didn't. I went into the fields by the Nightingale's Tree, and waited till nearly a quarter to ten. But Arnold never came."
"Did he promise to come?"
"No. I only went on the chance. He thought that he might be able to get away if his understudy could take his part in the piece."
"I expect he couldn't get away," said Gerty. "How awful this murder is. I wonder who the woman can be, and how she came to be killed."